kimkat2123k The Philology
of the English Tongue. John Earle, M.A. Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the
University of Oxford. Third Edition. 1879.
14-11-2018
● kimkat0001 Yr Hafan www.kimkat.org
● ● kimkat2001k
Y Fynedfa Gymraeg www.kimkat.org/amryw/1_gwefan/gwefan_arweinlen_2001k.htm
● ● ● kimkat0960k Mynegai i’r holl destunau yn y wefan hon www.kimkat.org/amryw/1_llyfrgell/testunau_i_gyd_cyfeirddalen_4001k.htm
● ● ● ● kimkat0960k
Mynegai i’r testunau Cymraeg yn y wefan hon www.kimkat.org/amryw/1_testunau/sion_prys_mynegai_0960k.htm
● ● ● ● ● kimkat2121k The Philology of the English Tongue /
Astudiaeith Gymharol o’r Iaith Saesneg 1879 - Y Gyfeirddalen
www.kimkat.org/amryw/1_testunau/testun-246_philology-english-tongue_earle_1879_y-gyfeirddalen_2121k.htm
● ● ● ● ● ● kimkat2123k
y tudalen hwn
|
|
|
Gwefan
Cymru-Catalonia |
|
….
...
llythrennau duon = testun wedi ei gywiro
llythrennau gwyrddion =
testun heb ei gywiro
.....
|
|
|
|
|
300
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. widely prevalent diminutival, of which we have but a few
and those rather obscure examples — as, bodkin, catkin, grimalkin, ladkin,
lakin = ladykin Sh, lai?ibki?i, napkin, kilderkin, pipkin. 377. 318. In -ing;
as king cyning, lording, shilling, sweeting Sh, and the Saxon execrative
nithing. This termination nowhere shews the simplicity of its original use
better than in apple-naming, as, codling, pippin (i. e. pipping), sweeting,
wilding. In German the formative -ling is numerous in the naming of apples
and of esculent fungi: Grimm 3. 376 and 782. A childe will chose a sweeting,
because it is presentlie faire and pleasant. — R. Ascham, Scholemaster i. Ten
ruddy wildings in the wood I found. John Dryden, Virgil, Eel. iii. 107. This
-ing became the formative of the Saxon patronymic,as JElfred -ZEfelwulfing,
Alfred the son of ^Ethelwulf; JEJ?elwulf waes Ecgbryhting, JEthelwulf was son
of Ecgbryht. The old Saxon title Jtf&eling, for the Crown Prince / was
thus formed, as it were the son of the JESel or Estate. About the year 1300,
Robert of Gloucester considered this word as needing an explanation: — Ac be
gode tryw men of be lond wolde abbe ymade kyng pe kunde eyr, be 3onge chyld,
Edgar Abelvng. Wo so were next kyng by kunde, me clupeb hym Athelyng. pervor
me clupede hym so, vor by kunde he was next kyng. Ed. Hearne, i. 354.
Translation. — But the good true men of the land would have made king the
natural heir, the young Chyld, Edgar Atheling. Whoso were next king by
birthright, men call him Atheling: therefore men called him so, for by birth
he was next king. In some of these instances we see -ing added to words
ending in l; and as this repeatedly happened, there arose from the habitual
association of this termination with that letter a new and distinct formative
in -ling, as changeling t |
|
|
|
|
|
301
darling, failing, firstling, fondling, fotmdling, gosling, hireling,
nestling, nurseling, seedling, stripling, starveling, underling. 377. comlyng.
Hyt seme|) a gret wondur hou3 Englysch pat ys pe burp-tonge of Englyschemen
"j here oune longage "J tonge ys so dyvers of soon in pis ylond, ~\
the longage of Normandy ys comlyng of anoper lond, ~\ hap on manere soon
among al men pat speke]> hyt ary3t in Engelonde. — John Trevisa, Higdens
Polychronicon, a.d. 1387. weakling. His baptisme was hastned to prevent his
death, all looking on him as a weakling, which would post to the grave. —
Thomas Fuller, Franciscus Junius in 'Abel Redevivus,' 1 651. Even this
secondary formative is of high antiquity, and its standing in our language is
only imperfectly indicated by the observation that it is in German as in
English far more frequent than its primary in -ing. The word silverling in
Isaiah vii. 23 is after Luther's (Stlkrling. Here we must also include the
abstract substantive in -ing, Saxon -ung, as blessing bletsung, twinkeling:
and two which are oftener seen in the plural, innings, winnings. The new
ideas of ' peace, retrenchment, and reform ' got their innings. and amid much
struggle, and with a few occasional episodes, have ruled the national policy
from 1830 till 1875. — W. R. Greg, Nineteenth Century, Sept. 1878; p. 395
This -ing (-ling) originally signifies extraction, paternity and descent. It
has figured very largely in names of places, as Reading, Sandringham,
Fotheringhay. In such instances it is sometimes patronymic, that is to say,
it was the name of a family from a common ancestor; and sometimes merely
connective with the locality, as we might say 'he of — 'the man of/ It slid
into a diminutival function in many instances: — of which below, 377. 319. In
-er Saxon -ere; bcEcere baker, boceras Scribes in the Gospels, literally
bookers. From this source we have |
|
|
|
|
|
302
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. also ale-conner, binder, dealer, ditcher, fiddler,
fisher, fowler, grinder, harper, hater, listener, miller, -monger, runner, skipper,
walker, Webber. The area of this termination was vastly enlarged by the
confluence of the French -ier, 338; and now it is one of our most apt and
ready formations: — ■ user, believer. Cromwell was
not an ordinary Puritan, and is not to be mixed up with his class. He is a
man sui generis He rises out of the Puritanical movement, and receives its
mould, but he is a user of Puritanism full as much as, and rather more than, he is a believer in
it. — J. B. Mozley, Essays, i. 251; ' Carlyle's Cromwell.' It is this -er
which we see in such descriptions as Londoner, Northerner, Southerner. It was
necessary to illustrate my method by a concrete case; and, as a Londoner
addressing Londoners, I selected the Thames, and its basin, for my text. — T.
H. Huxley, Physiography, p. viii. 320. -ness, from -nis or -nes, which in
oblique cases made -nesse; and this oblique form it was that became
traditional, and that explains the double-s in present orthography. We can
analyze -nis into n-is, the is being the original formative, M.G. -assus,
while n is an attachment like l in -ling. In the Mcesogothic Lord's Prayer
(15) we see thiudin-assus, and the formative is assus. The frequency of a
similar contact with n seems first to have made ness a formative; but its
attraction proved so powerful that it everywhere superseded the pure form.
Such a diversion intimates that the new form approved itself to the mind of
the speakers, and brought more satisfaction than the old. Grimm bewails this
seduction of the speech-genius from the true path; but he admits that the
error, as he calls it, pervades the earliest Old High German remains. The
avidity of this acceptance I explain by reference to Ness a headland. That
particular explanation may or may not be the real one; but these |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — SAXON FORMS. 303 transitions do not take place without some
such mental connivance, though the mind be little conscious of its part. This
formative is unknown in the Scandinavian languages. Examples: — awkward?iess,
blindness, carelessness, consciousness, darkness, emptiness, fullness,
goodness, heaviness, indebtedness, meanness, peaceableness, readiness,
supple?iess, usefulness, weariness, wilderness, witness. Illustrations: —
highmindedness, dejeciedness, contentedness. He that cannot abound without
pride and high-mindednesse, will not want without too much dejectednesse . .
. Frame a sufficiency out of contentednesse — Richard Sibs, Seniles Conflict,
ch.x. ed. 1658. composedness. Spiritual composedness and sabbath of spirit. —
I'd. ever lasting ness. But felt through all this fleshly dress, Bright
shoots of everlastingness. Henry Vaughan (1621-1695), The Retreat.
carelessness. The sole explanation of incongruities in Shakespeare is to be
found, I believe, in that sublime carelessness which is characteristic of the
genius of this wonderful man. — Sir Henry Holland, Recollections of Past
life, ch. ix. The plural -nesses is comparatively rare. The sense being
mostly abstract in this group, the plural is the less called for. If however
the sense is concrete, the plural is used commonly, as witnesses. Even in
abstract words it is also employed, but there is something of demonstration about
it. Jeremy Taylor has darknesses, and Paley has consciousnesses: — . . .
illuminations, secret notices or directions, internal sensations, or
consciousnesses of being acted upon by spiritual influences, good or bad. —
Evidences i. 2. 1. Dr. Mozley has grotesquenesses, coolnesses: — In the midst
of enemies, Irish and English, Court treacheries and coolnesses, Strafford
depended solely upon Laud, and no one other support — Archbishop Laud (1S45)
in Essays (1878) p. 201. |
|
|
|
|
|
304
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. In such instances, there is something pronounced, there is
just a touch of demonstrativeness. 321. There has been a period, dating from
the sixteenth century, in which this formative has been less in vogue, whilst
the Latin -alion has prevailed; but rivalry between forms is often smoothed
into cooperation, in a language that loves the breadth of duplicate
expression. Thus we see -ness and -alion yoked amicably together, as — More
studious of unity and concord than of innovations and new-fangleness. —
Common Prayer, Of Ceremonies. There is sometimes a touch of humour in -ness:
— What an unusual share of somethingness in his whole appearance! — Oliver
Goldsmith, Citizen of the World, Letter xiv. Of late years -ness has been
much revived, and has furnished some new words, as indebtedness. Indeed the
form has become a modern favourite, and many a new turn of speech has been
made with it. In the bold novelty of some of them we may almost trace a
spirit of rebellion against conventionality. inwardness. Nor Nature fails my
walks to bless With all her golden inwardness. James Russell Lowell.
hopefulness, belieffulness. And there is a hopefulness and a belieffulness,
so to say, on your side, which is a great compensation. — A. H. Clough to R.
W. Emerson, 1853. missionariness. It is, I think, alarming — peculiarly at
this time, when the female inkbottles are perpetually impressing upon us
woman's particular worth and general missionariness — to see that the dress
of women is daily more and more unfitting them for any mission or usefulness
at all. — Florence Nightingale, Notes on Nursing. norihness. Long lines of
cackling geese were sailing far overhead, winging their way to some more
remote point of northness. — Dr. Hayes, Open Polar Sea, ch. xxxv. |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — SAXON FORMS. 305 322. As a consequence of its revived
popularity, it is now frequently substituted for French or Latin terminations
of like significance, and this even in words of Romanesque material. A lady
asked me why the author wrote effeminateness and not effeminacy in the
following passage. 1812, June 17th. At four o'clock dined in the Hall with De
Quince v who was very civil to me, and cordially invited me to visit his
cottage in Cumberland. Like myself, he is an enthusiast for Wordsworth. His
person is small, his complexion fair, and his air and manner are those of a
sicklv and enfeebled man. From this circumstance his sensibility, which I
have no doubt is genuine, is in danger of being mistaken for effeminateness.
— Henry Crabb Robinson, Diary, vol. i. p. 391. Indeed -cy and -ness are good
equivalents, and hence they are often seen coupled or opposed, as decency and
cleanliness. Decency must have been difficult in such a place, and cleanliness
impossible. — James Anthony Froude, History of England, August, 1567. The
above terminations are of immeasurable antiquity, and we are not in a
position to say whether they were ever anything more than terminations,
whether they ever existed as independent words. But in the instances which
follow, -dom, -red, -lock, -hood, -ship, -ric, we know that the terminations
were once separate words, and the earliest examples were therefore once in
the condition of compounds, in which the second part was as intentionally
selected for the occasion as the first. But this condition has long ago
passed away, and the second part has become a traditional appendage to the
first, while the two together represent an idea which the mind no longer
analyzes. 323. The collective or abstract -dom is found in all the dialects
except the Mcesogothic. It seems to have originally meant distinction,
dignity, grandeur, and so to have been chosen to express the great whole of
anything. As a separate word it became doom, meaning authority and judgment.
x |
|
|
|
|
|
306
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. Examples: — Christendom, heathendom, kingdom, martyrdom,
serfdom, sheriffdom, thraldom, wisdom. Altered form: — halidam or halidame.
The Germans make a variety of words with this formative, as Stftfjum
bishopdom; 3fteicfytf)uni richdom. This form has recovered a new activity of
late years, and it is now highly prolific. We meet with such new examples as
beadledom, fabledom, prigdom, Saxondom, scoundreldom, rascaldom. Saxondom.
How much more two nations, which, as I said, are but one nation; knit in a
thousand ways by nature and practical intercourse; indivisible brother
elements of the same great Saxondom, to which in all honorable ways be long
life! — Thomas Carlyle, in Forster's Life of Dickens, ch. xx. rascaldom. I
doubt very much indeed whether the honesty of the country has been improved
by the substitution so generally of mental education for industrial; • and
the • three R's,' if no industrial training has gone along with them, are
apt, as Miss Nightingale observes, to produce a fourth R — of rascaldom. — J.
A. Froude, at St. Andrew's, March, 1869. prigdom. Well, and so you really
think, that my son will come back improved; will drop the livery of prigdom,
and talk like other people. — The Monks of Thelema (1878) ch. iv. The value
of the formative has altered in the case of Christendom. This word is now
used to signify the geographical area which is peopled by Christians; but in
the early use it meant just what we now mean by Christianity, the profession
and condition of a Christian man. It is early days to find the modern sense
in Chaucer — And ther to hadde he ryden no man ferre, As wel in cristendom as
hethenesse, Prologue, 49; and rather belated to find the elder sense in
Shakspeare. In the graphic dialogue about the new fashions fresh from France,
the lord chamberlain says — |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — SAXON FORMS. 307 Their cloathes are after such a Pagan cut
too't, That sure th'haue worne out christendorne. Henry VIII, i. 3. 15. 324.
Substantives in -red are, and always were, but few. The formative answers to
the German xatt) in <$tixatt), marriage, originally meaning design, but in
the formative having only the sense of condition. It seems to be the same as
the final syllable in the proper names Alfred, Eadred, JEpelred. Of this
formation I can only produce two words that are still in current use, unless
we may place hundred here. Examples: — hatred, kindred. In the fourteenth
century we meet with gossipred. But the enmity between the 'English by blood'
and 'English by birth ' still went on, and the former married with the Irish,
adopted their language, laws, and dress, and became bound to them also by '
gossipred ' and ' fosterage.' — W. Longman, Edward the Third, vol. ii. p. 15.
The words of this formation seem to be specially adapted for the expression
of human relationships, whether natural, moral, or social. This is the case
with the three already instanced, as well as with others belonging to the
Saxon stage of the language. We must not omit the word neighbourhood, which
is one of these terms of social relationship, and which was originally '
neighbour;-^/ as we find it far into the transition period. Mon sulSe his
elmesse ]>enne he heo gefe5 swulche monne Se he for scome wernen ne mei
for ne3eburredde. — Old English Homilies, p. 137. Man sells his alms tuhen he
givelh it to such a man as he for very shame cannot warn off [ = decline
giving to~\ by reason of the ties of neighbour' hood. 325. -lock, -leche,
-ledge. These are very few now, and were not numerous in Saxon, where the
termination was in the form -lac: as brydlac marriage, gicSlac battle,
reaflac spoil, scinlac sorcery. The word lac here is an old word x 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
30 8
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. for play, and still exists locally in lake-fellow for
play-fellow. To lake is common in Cumberland and Westmoreland in the sense of
' to play.' * Examples: — ivedlock; and in an altered form, knowledge.
knowleche. But and yf he wolde haue comen hyther, he myght haue ben here, for
he had knowleche by the kynges messager. — William Caxton, Reynart (1481), p.
58, ed. Arber. 326. -hood was an independent substantive in Saxon literature,
in the form of had. 32. This word signified office, degree, faculty, quality.
Thus, while the power and jurisdiction of a bishop was called ' biscopdom '
and ' biscopric,' the sacred function which is bestowed in consecration was
called '■ biscophad.' The verb for ordaining or
consecrating was one which signified the bestowal of had, viz. 1 hadian.'
Examples: — boy hood, brotherhood, childhood, falsehood, hardihood,
likelihood, livelihood, maidenhood, manhood, sisterhood, widowhood. A secondary form is -lied, which
in Godhead is obscured by an unmeet orthography, so that the meaning Godhood
is not quite plain 2 . Both forms are found in Chaucer, as chapmanhode {Man
of Lazves Tale, stanza 2), goodelyhede {Blaunche 829). In Spenser it is -hed
or -hedd, as in his description of a comet: — dreryhcdd. All as a blazing
starre doth farre outcast His hearie beames, and flaming lockes dispredd, 1
Guthlac was not only a word for battle, but was also a man's name; tc wit, of
the Hermit of Croyland. Also warlock may be regarded as one of this class, at
least by assimilation. It is probably a modification of the Saxon ivcEr-loga,
which Grein eloquently translates vsritatis uifitiator, anc which was
applicable to almost any sort of intelligent being that was perfidious, and
under a ban, and beyond the pale of humanity. 2 It were a merit, if any had
the courage, to write Godhcd. |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — SAXON FORMS. 309 At sight whereof the people stand aghast; But
the sage wisard telles, as he has redd, That it importunes death and dolefull
dreryhedd. The Faery Qu eerie, iii. I. 1 6. boimtihed. She seemed a woman of
great bountihed. Id. iii. I. 41. The word livelihood merits notice by itself.
It has been assimilated to this class by the influence of such forms as
likelihood. The original Saxon word was lif-ladu (vitae cursus), the course
or leading of life. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it was written
liflode, and was the commonest word for 'living' in the sense of means of
life, where we should now use the (unhistorical) form livelihood. This
formative is represented in German by -l)eit, as eerr genuine, Gclubcit
genuineness; or -feit, as ettel idle, (Sttelfeit frivolity, vanity. 327.
-ship is from the old verb sceapan, to shape; and indeed it is the mere
addition of the general idea of shape on to the noun of which it becomes the
formative abstract. It corresponds to the German -fctnift, as ©efell
companion, ©efeflfdjaft society. Examples: — authorship, doctorship,
fellowship, friendship, lordship, ladyship, ownership, proctorship,
trusteeship, workmanship, worship ( = worth-ship). Illustrations: — The
proctorship and the doctorship. — Clarendon, History, i. § 189. Trusteeship
has been converted into ownership. — Edward Hawkins, Our Debts to Ccesar and
to God, 1868. The Dutch form is -schap, as in Landschap (Germ. &mbfdjaft)
— a word which we have borrowed from the Dutch artists, and made into
landscape. 328. The form -ric is an old word for rule, sway, |
|
|
|
|
|
310
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. dominion, jurisdiction. We have but one word left with
this formative, viz. bishopric. There used to be others, as cyneric, like the
German JtonigreicJ); but we now say ' kingdom.' They would not regard the
last syllable in this word as a formative, but as an independent substantive
Sftetcfy, and they would regard ^onigreid) as a compound. We cannot so regard
bishopric, simply because we have lost ric as a distinct substantive; but
when the word bishopric was first made, it was made as a compound. The same
is true of all this group of substantives in -dom, -hood, -lock, -red, -ship,
that they were originally started as compounds; but the latter member having
lost its independent hold on the speech, it has come to be regarded as a mere
formative attached to the body of the word as a significant termination. At
the end of the Saxon list it seems most natural to' mention a few words which
make their appearance for the first time with the modern English language,
and of which the origin is obscure. Such are boy, girl, pig, dog. Piers
Plowman has boy, and so has Chaucer — A slier boy was non in Engelonde.
Canterbury Tales, 6904. |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — FRENCH FORMS. 311 occurs in every chief language of Europe, is
from Old High Dutch ward, and corresponds to the last syllable in the Saxon
name Edward. In our form ivarden, we cast off the French guise of the first
syllable, but retained the Romanesque termination, Latin -ianus, French -ten.
The French garden is radically one with the English yard; the French range
with the English rank: and so in many other instances. Some of our French
substantives are hard to classify, because their formatives are obliterated \
as anguish, aunt ante (amita), chief chef (caput), court, dame, depot,
estate, face, grace, image, justice, page, peace, peril, place, pride, ruin,
rule, vial, virtue, vow vceu. The French substantival forms are: — -y -le -el
-er -ery -our -son, -shion, -som -ment -et, -ette, -let -age, -enger -or,
-our, -er -er, -or, -ar -ier, -yer, -er, -eer -ee -ard -on, -ion, -oon -ine,
-in -ure -ice, -ise, -esse -ity, -ty -acy -ain, -aign -ade, -ad |
|
|
|
|
|
312
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. y, French -ie, Latin -ia: — alchemy, barony, clergy,
company, courtesy, envy en vie (invidia), felony, glory, jealousy, monarchy,
policy, philosophy, story, vilany. This is a very pervading form, which often
adds a finishing tip to other Romanesque formatives, both of French and Latin
complexion: as in -ery, -acy, -ency. 331, 350, 356. It is also an absorbing
form, drawing into itself other forms besides the above: thus jury juree, and
-ity, 349, -osity, 357. Many names of countries belong here: Brittany,
Burgundy, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lombardy, Normandy, Picardy, Saxony,
Tartary, Turkey. Others of the same type, but later known to us, keep the
Latin form: as, Albania, Armenia, Bavai'ia, Bulgaria, Dalmatia, Mesopotamia,
Prussia, Roumania, Russia, Scandinavia, Slavonia, Wallachia. One country at
least takes both forms: we have Araby in poetry and Arabia in prose. This
termination was disyllabic, not only in Latin, and in French (where it still
is so obscurely), but also in early English. The French accent being on the
i, as compagnie^ it was easy for the -e to evaporate, leaving only the simple
sound represented by -y. None perhaps are more distinctly French in look than
those in -le, after French -le, -aille; — Latin -ela, -alia, -ulus, -ula,
-ulum. Examples: — angle, battle, bible, candle (candela), cattle, couple
(copula), fable (fabula), marble, miracle, people peuple, stable, table,
uncle oncle (avunculus). Almost blending with these, but still
distinguishable, are those in -el an old diminutive, Latin -ellus, Italian
-etlo, Old |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — FRENCH FORMS. 313 French -*/, Modern French -eau, fern. -elk.
The diminutival power is rather effete, but may still be perceived in some of
the instances. Examples: — bowel, bushel, chapel, cockerel, damsel, morsel,
pommel, sachel sacculus, vessel. The tendency of these to lose themselves in
the former group is seen in castle castellum, mantle O. Fr. mantel, Mod. Fr.
manteau, Ital. mantello. 330. The next form is interesting, although it has
but a feeble hold on the modern language, and never was much more than a
legal technicality. -er is a French infinitive become substantive. We are
familiar with the French infinitive in such a law phrase as 'oyer and
terminer'; but the following are become substantives — attainder, cesser,
demurrer, disclaimer, misnomer, rejoinder, remainder, surrender, tender,
trover, user, waiver. cesser. I assure you we are all happy to hear of your
recovery and cesser of pain. — Lord Brougham to Matthew Davenport Hill, 1831;
Memoir of M. D. Hill, p. 109. user. Several of the commons proposed to be
enclosed are in the neighbourhood of large towns, and one of them, embracing
the Lizard Point and Kynance Cove in Cornwall, comprising scenery of unusual
beauty. The practical effect of the enclosures would be to prevent that
public user of the commons which has hitherto existed, without making
anything like an adequate reservation in lieu of it. — August 9, 1870.
waiver. Therefore the British Commissioners regarded them as waived. They
recorded the waiver, and informed the Government of it at the time . , . .
And because the American Commissioners did not formally present them a second
time, he concluded that they were waived, and he telegraphed to his
Government of the waiver. — June 6, 1872. 331. Among the most thoroughly
domesticated of the French forms are those in |
|
|
|
|
|
3H vn -
THE NOUN GROUP. -ry or -ery, French -erie, as in Jacquerie, gendarmerie: —
ancientry, battery, bravery, cavalry, chapelry, dea?iery, fishery, foppery,
gentry, heraldry, hostelry, husbandry, huswifry Sh, imagery, Jewry,
machinery, mockery, nunnery, nursery, palmistry, piggery, poetry, pottery,
poultry, rookery, sorcery, spicery, swannery t trumpery tromperie, villagery,
witchery, yeomanry. mockeries. I think we are not wholly brain, Magnetic
mockeries. — In Memoriam, cxix. Shrubbery is from the old homely word scrub
in the sense which it bears in ' Wormwood Scrubs,' and in the following
quotation: It [the barony of Farney] was then a wild and almost unenclosed
plain, and consisted chiefly of coarse pasturage interspersed with low alder
scrub. — W. Steuart Trench, Realities of Irish Life, p. 66. From this French
form the Germans have borrowed their -eret as ©roJHpredjerei tall talk,
rodomontade, Surtftcrei jurisprudence. Some of these words, once borrowed
from French, are now more English than French. Thus poeterie was already for
Cotgrave in 1 6 1 1 'an old word '; that is to say, old in French; — and now
it is not a French word at all. It is entirely superseded by a Greek word
poe'sie. It survives only in our poetry, and this has become a distinctively
English word. Another word that bears our stamp, is fairy. This was
originally fe'erie, the collective noun to the French fee, as those little
folk are still called across the Channel, but we gradually passed from such
expressions as land of faerie and queene of faerie, to make fairies the
modern substitute for the native elves. For a Greek -cry see 364. |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — FRENCH FORMS. 315 In -our, from O. French -our, New French
-eur, Latin -or, -oris: as clamour, honour, labour. 332. In -son, -shion, or -som,
after the French -son from the Latin nouns in -tio, -tionis. The termination
-son represents the Latin accusative case. Examples: — advowson advocationem,
arson, benison benedictionem, comparison comparationem, fashion factionem,
garrison Fr. garnison, lesson lectionem, malison maledictionem, orison
orationem, poison potionem, ransom redemptionem, reason rationem, season
sationem, treason traditionem, venison venationem. The form -sion must also
be placed here, after the French from the Latin -sionem; as mansion, passion,
pension. Foison is an interesting word of this class. It is now out of use,
but it occurs in Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakspeare. It signified abundance,
copiousness; and represented fusionem the accusative of fusio, which was used
in a sense something like our modern Latin word ' profusion.' The modern
Italian has the substantive fusione. It is a very frequent word in Froissart,
as grand 1 foison de gent, a great multitude of people. The following
passage, from a fifteenthcentury description of the hospitality of a
Vavasour, exemplifies the use of this word. Sirs, seide the yonge man, ye be
welcome, and ledde hem in to the middill of the Court, and thei a-light of
theire horse, and ther were I-nowe that ledde hem to stable, and yaf hem hey
and otes, ffor the place was well stuffed; and a squyer hem ledde in to a
feire halle be the grounde hem for to vn-arme, and the Vavasour and his wif,
and his foure sones that he hadde, and his tweyne doughtres dide a-rise, and
light vp torches and other lightes ther-ynne, and sette water to the fier,
and waisshed theire visages and theire handes, and after hem dried on feire
toweiles and white, and than brought eche of hem a mantell, and the Vauasour
made cover the tables, and sette on brede and wyn grete foyson, and venyson
and salt flessh grete plente; and the knyghtes sat down and ete and dranke as
thei that ther-to haue great nede. — Merlin, Early English Text Society, p.
517. 333. In -ment. From the Latin -nwitum, as frumentum, |
|
|
|
|
|
31 6
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. jumentum. In the early time this form figured much more
largely in French than in English. For example, we have not and never had in
English the two Latin words nowquoted. But the French have both fromenf and
jument. We may add, that words of this termination were most numerous with us
during the period when the French influence was most dominant, and that since
that period many of them have grown obsolete. Examples: — accomplishment,
advancement, amendment, battlement, cement, chastisement, commandment,
deportment, detri?nent, development, element, enchantment, engagement,
firmament, habili7nent, improvement, instrument, judgment, moment, ointment,
ornament, parlement, pavement, payment, regiment, sacrament, savement,
sentiment, tenement, testament, torment, tournament, vestment. sentement =
taste, flavour. And other Trees there ben also, that beren Wyn of noble
sentement. — Maundevile, p. 189. fir?nament, compassement. For the partie of
the Firmament schewethe in o contree, that schewethe not in another contree.
And men may well preven by experience and sotyle compassement of Wytt that .
. . men myghte go be schippe alle aboute the world. — Maundevile, p. 180. In
the following quotation, intendiment means understanding, intelligence, from
the French entendre, to understand. Into the woods thenceforth in haste shee
went, To seeke for herbes that mote him remedy; For shee of herbes had great
intendiment. The Faery Queene, iii. 5. 32. encroachment. One of the most
noticeable facts in literature is the gradual encroachment of prose upon
poetry — a change which has been going on from the first, and of which
evidently we do not yet see the end. — John Conington, The Academical Study
of Latin. |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — FRENCH FORMS. 317 In some modern words it seems to be rather
an English than a French form; thus we have made the French embarras into the
English embarrassment. The revived interest in older formatives which marks
our time has brought this also into fresh notice, and has caused its
word-painting power of picturesqueness to be appreciated. In a recent story,
the heroine has a ' face full of dimplements.' 334. In -et. A French
diminutive form, masculine, Italian -etto. Examples: — bouquet, budget,
cricket, crochet, cygnet, facet, floiveret, gibbet, hatchet, isl-et,ju?iket,
tatchet, pocket, riiul-et, signet, socket, ticket, trumpet, turret. Lynchei
is a local word of Saxon origin which has taken this French facing. In the
neighbourhood of Winchester and elsewhere along the chalk hills, it signifies
bank, terrace; and it has been applied to those ledges which have the
appearance of raised beaches. It is the old Saxon word Mine, frequently used
in Saxon charters for an embankment, artificial or natural. So it gets
attached to frontier wastes, as in the case of the Links of St. Andrews,
Malvern Link. In Jenning's Glossary of the West of England, linch is defined
as ' A ledge; a rectangular projection/ and here we have the form which was
frenchified into lynchet. And -ette, Italian -etta, the feminine of the
above. Examples: — coquette, etiquette, marionette, mignonette, pat ette,
rosette, vignette, wagonette. We have adopted etiquette a second time. Our
first reception of it has degenerated into ticket, which comes under the form
last mentioned. This diminutival form -et, -ette, was in old French often
superimposed upon the effete diminutival -el, 329; and hence resulted the
composite termination -let. Examples: — armlet, bracelet, branchlet, chaplet,
frontlet, gauntlet, kinglet, ringlet, tr outlet. |
|
|
|
|
|
31 8
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. branchlet. I have found it necessary to make a
distinction between branches and branchlets, understanding by the latter term
the lateral shoots which are produced in the same season as those from which
they spring. — JohnLindley, A Monograph of Roses (1820), p. xxi. islet,
ringlet. Nor for yon river islet wild Beneath the willow spray, Where, like
the ringlets of a child, Thou weav'st thy circle gay; — John Keble, Christian
Year, Tuesday in Easter Week. 335. In -age, a French form from Latin -aticam:
as average, baggage, bondage, carnage, carriage, cottage, damage, espionage,
foliage, herbage, language, lineage, marriage, message, passage, plumage,
poundage, tonnage, vicarage, village, voyage. These words had for the most
part an abstract meaning in their origin, and they have often grown Vnore
concrete byuse. The word collage, as commonly understood, is concrete, but
there was an older and more abstract use, according to which it signified an
inferior kind of tenure, a use in which it may be classed with such words as
burgage, soccage. The following is from a manuscript of the seventeenth
century. The definition of an Esquire and the severall sortes of them
according to the Custome and Vsage of England. An Esquire called in latine
Armiger, Scutifer, et homo ad arma is he that in times past was Costrell to a
Knight, the bearer of his sheild and helme, a faithful companion and
associate to him in the Warrs, serving on horsebacke, whereof euery knight
had twoe at the least in attendance upon him, in respect of the fee, For they
held their land of the Knight by Cottage as the Knight held his of the King
by Knight service. — Ashmole MS. 837, art. viii. fol. 162. A beautiful
abstract use of the word personage, in the sense of personal appearance,
occurs in The Faery Queene, iii. 2. 26:— |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — FRENCH FORMS. 319 The Damzell wel did vew his Personage.
Carriage now signifies a vehicle for carrying; but in the Bible of 161 1 it
occurs eight times as the collective for things carried, impedimenta. In
Numbers iv. 24 it is a marginal reading for ' burdens/ which is in the text.
In Acts xxi. 15, 'We tooke vp our cariages ' is in the Great Bible (1539) '
we toke vp oure burthenes/ and in the Geneva version (1560) 'we trussed vp
our fardeles.' The abstract glides easily into the collective, and this is
seen in many of the instances, as baggage, carnage, foliage, herbage,
plumage. I asked a girl in Standard III, the lesson being Campbell's Parrot,
what plumage meant? She answered, ' A nice lot of feathers, Sir/ 336. Next to
-age we naturally come to the form -ager, as in the French passager,
messager. Above, 71, we find messager in an English letter of the year 1402.
It has been altered in English to -enger, as passenger, messenger; and
-inger, as harbinger, porringer, pottinger, wharfinger. Wallinger is the name
of a class of labourers in the salt-works at Nantwich, and it may perhaps be
connected with Saxon weallan to boil. Mur inger is the title of the officers
who are charged with the repairs of the walls at Chester, and it may be seen
on a tablet over an archway near the Water Tower. In the fourteenth century
there was a public officer known as the King's aulneger, who was a sort of inspector
of the measuring of all cloths offered for sale, and his title was clerived
from the French aulne an ell, aulnage measuring with the ell-measure. And
here belongs also that great mediaeval word danger, as if danager, from dan
dominus, as in 'Dan Chaucer.' It was used to signify lord's rights, lordship,
sway, mastery. In the Romaunt of the Rose 3015 it is a man's name: |
|
|
|
|
|
5 2 o VII.
THE NOUN GROUP. But than a chorle, foul him betide, Beside the roses gan him
hide, To keepe the roses of that rosere, Of whom the name was daungere: This
chorle was hid there in the greves, Covered with grasse and with leves, To
spie and take whom that he fond Unto that roser put an hond. ' 337 In -or,
-our, -er, Old French -eor (disyllabic), New French -eur, from Latin -tor
-oris: as, chanter chanteor (cantator), emperor empereor (imperator),
govemour (gubernator), traitor (traditor), saviour salveor (salvator). The
form saviour is intelligible not from New French sauveur, but from the Old
French salveor trisyllabic \ 338 In -er, -or, -ar, French -ier (Latin
-arius); as, bachelor bachelier (baccalarius), butcher, carpenter, Fletcher,
gardener, arocer, usher huissier (ostiarius), vintner. This French -ier is '
perhaps the most productive ' of all the French noun- ■
forms 2 It is the constant type of word for expressing a man's trade, and in
this function it sustained and enlarged the Saxon -ere, 319. In the Prologue we have four
of them in two lines: — An Haberdasshere and a Carpenter, A Webbe, a Dyere,
and a Tapycer. In French this -ier was moreover the prevalent type for
tree-naming; but this has passed into English, as far as I remember, in only
one instance, poplar peuplier. 339. -ier, -yer, -er, from French -fere, the
fern, of the above; as, barrier barriere, prayer priere, river riviere. In
-or, -er, from French -oir (Latin -orius); as, counter comptoir, mirror
miroir, r azor rasoir. ^^ i Friedrich Diez, Grammatik der Romanischen
Sprachen, ii. 49, 35° (e *- A u*uste Brachet, Grammaire Historic p. 2 7 6 (p.
184 of Mr. Kitchin's Translation, Clarendon Press Series). |
|
|
|
|
|
1. SUBSTANTIVES — FRENCH FORMS. 32 1 Here we
may observe in a series of examples how a variety of original forms run down
into -er. And there are more than these. Thus, from French -aire (Lat.
-arium), as dower douaire (dotarium); and -eoi're, as manger mangeoire. This
became an absorbing type. Saxon words of like import but unlike form were
drawn into it; thus cuma became comer, hunta hunter. 340. Another form, -eer,
is modern as to orthography, but perhaps it may be the true living
representative of the French -ier, as auctioneer, buccaneer, charioteer,
mountaineer, muleteer, pamphleteer, pioneer, privateer. This form is
sometimes used half-play fully: fellow-circuiteer . The enormous gains of my
old fellow-circuiteer, Charles Austin, who is said to have made 40,000
guineas by pleading before Parliament in one session. — Henry Crabb Robinson,
Diary, 18 18. 341. In -ee. This termination is from the French passive
participle. Examples: — devotee, feoffee, grandee, grantee, guarantee,
legatee, levee, mortgagee, nominee, patentee, payee, referee, refugee,
trustee. The original passive character of the form still shines out in most
of the examples; and often there is an active substantive as a counterpart.
Thus grantor, grantee; lessor, lessee; mortgagor, mortgagee. Assimilated are
decree decret (decretum), degree; also such names as Chaldee, Pharisee,
Sadducee, Manichee (for which Manichean is now more general), and Yankee.
342. In -ard, -art. Examples: — bastard, braggart, buzzard, bustard, coward,
dastard, dotard (Spenser, Faery Queene, iii. 9. 8), drunkard, dullard,
haggard a sort of hawk, laggard, mallard, niggard, pollard, sluggard,
standard, tankard (a little tank, French e'tang, Latin stagnum), wizard. Y |
|
|
|
|
|
322
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. Here should be mentioned also the national designations Nizzard,
Savoyard, Spaniard. In -on, -ion, -oon, French -on, as in macon, mouton,
salon; Latin masculines in -o, -io, genitive onis: — balloon, buffoon, capon,
champion, dungeon, escutcheon, falcon, felon, glutton, harpoon, lion, mutton,
pavilion, pigeon, salmon, stallion, saloon. These are to be distinguished
from those in -son, 332, from Latin feminines in -tio, -Horn's. 343. In -ine,
in, after the French from the Latin -inus, -ina. Examples: — basin, cousin,
famine, florin, libertine, matins, rapine, resin, routine, ruiti, vermin.
Altered forms: — canteen Latin cantina = cellar, curtain, don Latin dominus,
garden jardin, paten, venom venin. 344. In -ure, Latin -ura, as mensura.
Examples: — adventure, capture, caricature, censure, culture, departure, embrasure,
expenditure, failure, fissure, furniture, garniture, imposture, indenture,
juncture, manure, measure, miniature, mixture, nature, nomenclature, nurture,
overture, pasture, picture, posture, portraiture, pressure, primogeniture,
procedure, rapture, scripture, seizure, signature, stature, suture, torture,
verdure. Assimilated are leisure, treasure, from the French loisir, tre'sor.
closure. And for his warlike feates renowmed is, From where the day out of
the sea doth spring, Until! the closure of the Evening. The Faery Qjieene,
iii. 3. 27. disclosure. It follows, then, that Man is the great disclosure of
design in Nature; that Man lets out the great secret of the authorship of
Nature; and that Man is the revelation of a God in Nature. — J. B. Mozley, 4
The Argument of Design,' Essays, ii. 370. |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — FRENCH FORMS. 323 345. In -ice or -ise: after two or three
various Latin terminations, but typically from -itia. The Romanesque
languages have a double rendering for the Latin -ilia, the first of these
being in Italian -izia, in French -ice or -ise. Examples: — avarice, covelise
Spenser, cowardice, foolhardise Spenser, justice, malice, merchandise,
nigardise Spenser Faery Queene, iv. 8. 15, notice, queintise Chaucer, riotise
Spenser. gentrise, covetise. Wonder it ys sire emperour that noble gentrise
That is so noble and eke y fuld with so fyl couetyse. Robert of Gloucester,
p. 46. Franchise was a great word in the French period, and it had a wide
range of significations. Among other things it meant political privilege,
exemption, and also good manners, good breeding, which latter occurs among
the numerous renderings of this word in Randle Cotgrave's Dictionarie of the
French and English Tongves, 1 6 1 1 . franchise. We mote, he sayde, be hardy
and stalworthe and wyse, 3ef we wole habbe oure lyf, and hold our franchise.
Robert of Brunne, p. 155. To this class belonged the French word pentice or
pentise, of which the last syllable had been already before Shakspeare's time
anglicised into ' house/ making a sort of compound, pent-house. We must admit
into this set such words as edifice, prejudice, service, and we cannot make
the Latin termination -itium a ground of distinction in English philology,
where words are assimilated in form. On the confluence of formatives see 339.
346. In the sixteenth century these words were often Y 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
3^4
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. written with a z, and in this we must recognise a
phonetic effort. The French -ise sounded the same as -ice, but English people
gave it a zed-sound. Hence that struggle between the forms -ise, -tee, -ize.
The -ise and -ice are French, the -ize is the insular usage phonetically
written. In the sixteenth century the letter z was favoured by fashion, and
it made a certain inroad, gaining a good many places which were for the most
part phonetically due to it. Queen Elizabeth wrote her name with a z, and
that alone was an influential example. In some cases the fashion disappeared
and left no traces behind it; in other cases it was the origin of the
received orthography. Thus wizard became the recognised form instead of
wisard, which was the spelling of Spenser, as may be seen above, 326. In The
Faery Queene we see this fashion well displayed. There are such forms as
bruze, uze (iii. 5. 33), wize, disguize, exercize, guize (iii. 6. 23),
Paradize (iii. 6. 29), enterprize, e??iprize, arize, devize (vi. 1. 5). So
that there is nothing to marvel at if we find covettse ( = covetousness)
spelt covetize (iii. 4. 7), and the substantive which we now write practice,
written practize: — Ne ought ye want but skil, which practize small Wil
bring, and shortly make you a mayd Martiall. iii. 3. 53. This was due to the
Italian example. 347. But there is a further observation to be made
concerning this French substantive form. It seems that we must acknowledge it
to have introduced one of the most extensive modern innovations. It was
apparently the employment of this substantive as a verb that gave us our
first verbs in -ize, and so ushered the Greek -{fn*. An unfamiliar example of
one of these substantives verbally employed may be quoted from the
correspondence of Throgmorton and Cecil in 1567: — |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — FRENCH FORMS. 325 They would not merchandise for the bear's
skin before they had caught the bear. — Quoted by J. A. Froude, History 0/
England, vol. ix. p. 163. Indeed, there are instances in which the substantive
of this form is no longer known, while the verb is in familiar use. Such is
the verb to chastise (pronounced as if spelt with z), which appears in its
substantive character, equivalent to chastity, in Turbervile, Poem to his
Loue (about 1530): — And sooth it is she liude in wiuely bond so well, As she
from Collatinus wife of chastice bore the bell. I imagine the case is the
same with the verbs to jeopardise, and to advertise. Both of these I would
identify with this substantive form, though I am not prepared with an example
of either in its substantive character. But there is perhaps evidence enough
in Shakspeare's pronunciation that the verb to advertise was not formed from
the Greek -ize. In all cases does this verb in Shakspeare sound as adve'rtice,
and never as now advertize: — Aduertysing, and holy to your businesse.
Measure for Measure, v. 1. 381. Please it your Grace to be aduertised. 2
Henry VI, iv. 9. 22. For by my Scouts, I was aduertised. 3 Henry VI, ii. 1.
116. I haue aduertis'd him by secret meanes. 3 Henry VI, iv. 5. 9. We are
aduertis'd by our louing friends. 3 Henry VI, v. 3. 18. As I by friends am
well aduertised. Richard III, iv. 4. 501. Wherein he might the King his Lord
aduertise. Henry VIII, ii. 4. 178. In one instance the First Folio has it
with a z, but it makes no difference: |
|
|
|
|
|
J26
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. I was aduertiz'd, their Great generall slept. Troylus
and Cressida, ii. 3. ail. We have still several substantives of the -ice type,
as cowardice, justice, malice, notice; but I cannot call to mind more than
one verb in which this primitive form is retained, and that is the verb to
notice. Where -ment has been added to -ise, the -ise has kept its first
sound, as in advertisement, aggrandisement, chastisei?ient. 348. The second
Romanesque rendering of the Latin -ilia is in Italian -ezza, in French -esse.
So that this form -esse (-ess) is a collateral form to -ice. And the French
language presents us with justice and justesse co-existent in differing
shades of sense. Examples: — duresse Spenser, finesse, largess, prowess.
Riches belongs here by its extraction, being only an altered form of
richesse. In grammatical conception it has passed from a singular, to a
plural without a singular. This was one of the effects of centuries of Latin
schooling. The word richesse having been constantly used to render opes or
divitiae, which are plural forms, and being itself so nearly like an English
plural, has thus come to be so conceived of, and written accordingly. Burgess
has taken this shape, but it is from the French bourgeois, and that from the
Latin burgensis. The form -esse, as derived from -issa, and expressive of the
feminine gender, will be found at the close of the section, 384. 349. In the
French reign must be included also the forms in -ity and -ly. In -ity, after
the French -///, with the last syllable accented, because it represents two
syllables of the Latin accusative -iiatem, Italian -ild; as Latin carilatem,
Italian cariid, French char it e', English charity. |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES—FRENCH FORMS. 327 Examples: — antiquity, benignity, civility,
city civitatem, dexterity, equality, fidelity, gratuity, humanity, integrity
Joviality , legibility, majority, nativity, obscurity, pity pietatem,
posterity, quality, rapidity, sincerity, timidity, urbanity, velocity.
civility, equity, humanity, morality, security. The morality of our earthly
life, is a morality which is in direct subservience to our earthly
accommodation; and seeing that equity, and humanity, and civility, are in
such visible and immediate connection with all the security and all the
enjoyment which they spread around them, it is not to be wondered at, that
they should throw over the character of him by whom they are exhibited, the
lustre of a grateful and a superior estimation. — Thomas Chalmers, Sermon V.
(18 19). And -ty, a more venerable form of the same, historically associated
with the legal and political ideas of that early stage of our national life
when French was the language of administration. Examples: — admiralty,
casualty, certainty, fealty, loyalty, mayoralty, nicety, novelty, personalty,
realty, royalty, shrievalty, soverainty, spiritually, surety, temporally.
Mayoralty has taken as much as -ally for its suffix, and so grouped itself
with admiralty, royalty, spiritualty, temporalty. And here we may observe by
how slight a variation in form great distinctions are sometimes expressed.
Whereas personalty signifies personal property, chattels, personality
signifies the possession of conscious life: whereas realty signifies real
property, as land or houses, reality signifies the objective existence of
things. The one is after an earlier, the other after a more modern French
form. In some instances we see words changing from one form to another as a
mere fashion, and without any adequate distinction. Thus specialty seems to
be endangered by the tendency to imitate the French specialite' 1 . |
|
|
|
|
|
3^8
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. 350. As also these in -acy from Latin -alia and -aria;
as abbacy ', aristocracy, contumacy, delicacy, efficacy, episcopacy, fallacy,
inadequacy, intimacy, inveteracy, legacy, legitimacy, lunacy, papacy,
primacy, privacy, supremacy suprematie. And those in -ain, -aign, -aigne,
-eign, from French -aine, -aigne, modern -agne, Latin -aneus, as, campaign,
Cockaigne, fountain, mountain, sovereign. 351. Nor may we leave without
recognition those French substantives which we have adopted without any sort of
written modification, as amateur, connoisseur, rendezvous, reservoir. This
would seem to be the place to glance at some substantives which have come to
us through the French, from the southern Romance languages, Provencal or
Spanish. Such are those words 352. In -ade, -ad, which represent the
termination -alus of the Latin participle — ambuscade, ballad, balustrade,
barricade, brigade, camionade, cascade, cavalcade, comrade, crusade,
esplanade, fusillade, lemonade, marmalade, masquerade, palisade, parade,
promenade, renegade, salad, serenade, stockade, tirade. The genuine Spanish
form, masc. -ado, fern, -ada, is preserved in Armada, bravado, gambado,
tornado. 353. Round by the Spanish peninsula have also come to us those
English (or rather European) nouns which are derived from Arabic, as admiral,
alchemy, alcohol, alcove, algebra, alkali, almanac, arsenal, azimuth,
caravan, cipher, elixir, exchequer, magazine, nadir, orange, saffron, simoon,
zenith, zero. |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — SPANISH, ITALIAN, ARABIC. 329 To these we must add a word,
once celebrated, now obsolete, algorithm, or more familiarly, augrim. Also sometimes,
algorism, after the French algorisme. This Arabic word was the universal term
in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to denote the science of
calculation by nine figures and zero, which was gradually superseding the
abacus or ball-frame, with its counters. I shall reken it syxe times by
aulgorisme, or you can caste it ones by counters. — John Palsgrave, Fre?ich
Grammar, 1530. Nor may we overlook the Italian words that are gradually
winning their way into the list of English substantives. They are almost all
in a direct or indirect sense derived from the artistic terminology of
Italian poetry, or music, or painting, or architecture. Such are campanile,
canto, cantata, cupola, dilettante, extravaganza, finale, forte, fresco,
opera, oratorio, orchestra, piano, sonata, stanza, stiletto, studio,
trombone, virtuoso, violoncello, vista, volcano. vista. It led him on through
stage after stage of his work: a medieval glow terminated the dark laborious
vista; and the plodder's slow subterranean passage had an inward poetry to
illuminate and relieve it. — J.B.Mozley, Essays, ' Archbishop Laud,' p. 126.
354. The effect of the French pre-occupation of our language was not limited
to the period of its reign. It also imparted a tinge to the subsequent period
of classic domination. The Latin words that were next admitted into English,
became subject to those French forms which were already familiar among us;
and so much so, that it is rather arbitrary work to pretend to draw the line
of division. |
|
|
|
|
|
330
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — LATIN FORMS. 33 1 but gives the palm to offense, which has
continued to the present day as the correct orthography in French. The -ancy
-eney forms are peculiarly English. Clemency is in French ' clemence/ and
constancy is ' Constance.' The peculiarity arises from our surpassing the
French themselves in our attachment to an old French form -ie, now become^,
of whose various suffixment mention has been made above, 329. The two forms
-ency and -ence are liable to clash in their plurals. It is questioned which
is right, excellences or excellencies. Each has its place; the former in the
sense of abstract quality, the latter for titles of distinction. In our old
writers excellency is the prevalent form, and excellence is a mere duplicate
variety, without a distinct sense. In recent times, excelle?ice has become
dominant in the singular number, but has not yet established its ascendancy
in the plural. In fact the termination -ency is reluctantly yielding to
-ence, and as we look back into our elder literature, we frequently meet with
-ency where -ence is now usual. Thus super inte?ide?icy. Her admonition was
vain, the greater number declared against any other direction, and doubted
not but by her superintendency they should climb with safety up the Mountain
of Existence. — Samuel Johnson, The Vision of Theodore. 357. In -osity; as
animosity, curiosity, impetuosity, pomposity, scrupulosity. The forms in -ity
and -ty have been ranked under French products, 349, but osity came of Latin
studies. Its boisterous youth was in the seventeenth century, when several
examples were launched into currency, and soon stranded. Such were
fabulosity, mulier osity, populosity, speciosity. So great a glory as all the
speciosities of the world could not equalize. — Henry More, On Godliness, iv.
12. § 4. 358. In -ion, -tion, -ation, -ition, from the Latin -io t |
|
|
|
|
|
3$Z
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. 'alio, -itio, genitive -iom's; as accusation, action,
compassion, contrition, coronation, description, emulation, humiliation, investigation,
occupation, procrastination, region, relation, reputation, situation,
satisfaction, transaction. A very prolific formative. salutation. We behold
men, to whom are awarded, by the universal voice, all the honours of a proud
and unsullied excellence — and their walk in the world is dignified by the
reverence of many salutations — and as we hear of their truth and their
uprightness, and their princely liberalities, &c— Thomas Chalmers, Sermon
V. (1819). This abstract form is capable of a thundering eloquence. When a
new ship of war of the most advanced and formidable class of turret-ships was
announced by the name of ' The Devastation/ it might well be said that the
new cast of name was an apt exponent of the weight of metal by which the
terrors of marine warfare had been enhanced. This is a form upon which new
words have been made with great facility, as witness the off-hand words
savation, starvation. When Mr. H. Dundas used the word starvation in the
House of Commons, it was received with a roar of derision as a north-country
barbarism. — J. B. Heard, The Tripartite Nature of Man, p. 83, note. A
gardener once desiring to have his work admired — he had been moving some of
the raspberry-canes, to make the rows more regular — ' There, sir/ cried he,
' that 's what I call row-tation now!' From this facility it has naturally
followed that many have grown obsolete. Jeremy Taylor uses luxation to
signify the disturbing, disjointing, disconcerting, shocking, of the
understanding: — An honest error is better than a hypocritical profession of
truth, or a violent luxation of the understanding. — Liberty of Prophesying,
ix. 2. It is a phenomenon which may as well be remarked generally and once
for all, that in the prime of their vigour forms often overpass the area
which they are permanently to |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — LATIN FORMS. 335 occupy. Under each form we might collect a number
of words that have perished, not from age and decay, but just because they
were started rather in obedience to a strong formative impulse of the moment,
than from any occasion the language had for their services l . 359. In -our;
as ardour, creditor, fervour, governour, honour, valour. In this class of
words, derived at secondhand from the Latin words in -or, -ator, -itor, as
fervor, ardor, gubernator, the u is a trace of the French medium. This u has
moreover communicated itself even where there was previously nothing either
of French or of Latin, as in the purely Saxon compound neighbour from neh
nigh, and gebur dweller. A partial disposition has manifested itself to drop
this French u. Especially is this observable in American literature. But the
general rule holds good through this whole series of nouns from the Latin,
that what we call * anglicising ' them, is the reducing of them to a set of
forms which we borrowed originally from French. And thus it is true that the
French influence still accompanies us, even through the course of our
latinising epoch. Latin scholarship was, however, continually nibbling away
at these monuments of the French reign. The forms of many of our Romanesque
nouns were too permanently fixed to be shaken; but wherever the classical
scholar could make an English word more like Latin, he was fain to do it.
Nobody now writes tenour or creditour as in the Bible of 1 6 1 1: and
governour is less usual than governor. |
|
|
|
|
|
334 vu
> THE NOUN GROUP. 360. In -al. This form, which is derived from the Latin
adjectival formative -alts, -ale, has attached itself not only to words radically
Latin, as acquittal, dismissal, disposal, proposal, recital, refusal, rental,
reversal, revival, but also to others which are either French, as avowal,
perusal, rehearsal, survival, or purely English, as uprootal and the familiar
geological term upheaval. approval, refusal. I well remember his
[O'Connell's] smile as he nodded good-humouredly to us as we passed him; and
I must say it was one of approval rather than otherwise at our refusal to do
him homage. — W. Steuart Trench, Realities of Irish Life, p. 39. The plural
forms nuptials, espousals, are grammatically imitative of the Latin nuptiae,
sponsalia. A word which does not belong here, but which has assumed the guise
of this set, is bridal, from the Saxon bryd bride, and ealo ale; so that it really
meant the ale or festivity of the bride. One or two other compounds on this
model, such as church-ale, scot-ale, have become obsolete. Another word,
which has an equally deceptive appearance of being formed with the Latin -al
is burial. This is a pure Saxon word from its first letter to its last. The
Saxon form is byrigels, a form which is of the singular number, though it end
with s. The plural was byrigelsas. 361. In -ate, from the Latin -atus,
participle or substantive. Examples: — consulate, curate, episcopate,
estimate, opiate, ?nagnate, potentate, probate, syndicate, tribunate. In the
language of chemistry this form has a fixed and definite area assigned to it:
— carbonate, chlorate, muriate, sulphate. 362. In -tude, from the Latin
substantives in -ludo, -iudinis. Examples: — altitude, beatitude, certitude,
disquietude, exacti |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — LATIN FORMS. $$$ tude, fortitude, gratitude, habitude,
latitude, longitude, magnitude, multitude, solicitude, solitude, turpitude,
vicissitude. habitude. . . . and many habitudes of life, not given by nature,
but which nature directs us to acquire. — Joseph Butler, Analogy, i. v. 2
(1736). disquietude. x Look around this congregation. We are all more or less
the children of sorrow. There is not one of us who has not within him some
known or secret cause of disquietude. — Charles Bradley, Clapham Sermons, 183
1: Sermon VII. solicitude. The excellent breed of sheep, which early became
the subject of legislative solicitude, furnished them with an important
staple. — William H. Prescott, Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. i. p. 29 (ed.
1838). 363. The substantives in -ite must be reckoned anions the Latin ones,
as we received the form through the Latin; but it is Greek by origin. It was
of European celebrity in the middle ages as a class word, especially for
sects and opinions. The followers of the early heresies were often thus
designated, as Monothelites, Marcioniles, Monophy 'sites. Yet the odium which
now attaches to this form cannot have been felt in the sixteenth century, or
our Bible would not shew it so generally as it does, not only in such cases
as Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite, but also in Levite,
Ephralhite, Belhlehemite, Israelite. Already, however, at the close of the
seventeenth century, we find the ecclesiastical historian Jeremy Collier
using the term Wicliffists, as if with purpose to avoid writing Wiclifite,
which was the usual form. And thus in our own time the alumni of Winchester
are not indifferent about being called Wykehamites instead of Wykehamists.
The fact is, that with our sensitiveness about religious differences, this
form has become almost odious; and we scruple to quote instances of its
application out of respect |
|
|
|
|
|
$$6
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. for names that may be embodied. Suffice it for
illustration to put down such as Joanna- Southcotites and Mormonites. Still,
there is an historical use in which it is dispassionate enough: Already, in
the short space of six months, he had been several times a Jacobite, and
several times a Williamite. Both Jacobites and Williamites regarded him with
contempt and distrust. — T. B. Macaulay, History, 1689, c. xiii. Unaltered
Group. A considerable number of Latin words have been adopted in their
original and unaltered state: — abacus, acumen, album, alumnus, animus, apex,
apparatus, arbiter, arcana, area, arena, census, circus, compendium, curator,
deficit, detritus, equilibrium, eulogium, farrago, focus, formula, fungus,
genius, genus, gravamen, herbarium, index, interest, item, maximum, medium-,
memento, memorandum, minimum, minister, minutia, modicum, momentum, odium,
omen, onus, orator, pabulum, pastor, prospectus, radius, regimen, requiem,
residuum, sanatorium, senator, species, specimen, sponsor, squalor, status,
stimulus, stratum, tedium, terminus, tiro, ultimatum, vertex, virus, vortex.
medium. Madame de Stael said, and the general remark is true, ' The English
mind is in the middle between the German and the French, and is a medium of
communication between them.' — H. C. Robinson, Diary, vol. i. p. 175.
detritus, stratum. Like the blue and green and rosy sands which children play
with in the Isle of Wight, these tales of the people, which Grimm was the
first to discover and collect, are the detritus of many an ancient stratum of
thought and language buried deep in the past. — Max Muller, Chips, Uc. vol.
ii. p. 223. Denuded Specimens. Some Latin words are denuded of their
inflections and stand forth with a Saxon-like simplicity; as adit aditus,
class |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — GREEK FORMS. 337 classis, deposit depositum, exit exitus, herb
herba, orb orbis, plant planta, text textus, unguent unguentum, vest vestis,
victim victima. As a group these naturally represent some of the Latin words
that have been most worn down and therefore oldest in the service of the
English language, and their natural place is at the head of the Latin
section. There they would have been placed, but that the unbroken continuity
between French and Latin forms denied an opening in that place. Greek Forms.
364. Coming now to Greek, we have words denuded of form, as abyss, atom,
epoch, idol, idyl, meteor, myth, 7iymph, ocean, period, syste?n. Here belongs
the important word method, which has played a part in our language. I would
advise you as much as possible to throw your business into a certain method,
by which means you will learn to improve every precious moment, and find an
unspeakable facility in the performance of your respective duties. — Letter
from his Mother to Samuel Wesley at Westminster (1709). Forms in -y from
Greek words in -ia and -eia; as academy, agony, irony, pharmacy, rhapsody,
synonymy, tyranny. irony (eipaweta). There was no mockery in Miss Austen's
irony. However heartily we laugh at her pictures of human imbecility, we are
never tempted to think that contempt or disgust for human nature suggested
the satire. threnody {Qp^v^la). We crave not a memorial stone For those who
fell at Marathon: Their fame with every breeze is blent, The mountains are
their monument, And the low plaining of the sea Their everlasting threnody.
The Three Fountains (1869^, p. 100. Z |
|
|
|
|
|
33$
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. A few in -ery from -r,pLov, as baptistery ^airna-T^piov,
cemetery Koiprjrrjpiov, psaltery ^aXrrjpiov. These should be kept distinct
from the French -ery, 331. 365. In -ism from the Greek -107*0$-; as archaism,
absolutism, atheism, catechism, criticism, Darwinism, eclecticism, formalism,
fanaticism, idolism M, materialism, modernism, polytheism, propaga?idism,
scepticism, schism, truism, ventriloquism. This, the most luxuriant of our
Greek forms, began to push itself in Elizabeth's time, but it was still a new
toy in the seventeenth century. In the correspondence between Strafford and
Laud there is a to-and-fro imputation of ' Johnnisms ': Strafford belonging
to St. John's College, Cambridge: Laud to St. John's at Oxford. What means
this Johnnism of yours, — till the rights of the pastors be a little more
settled? Well, I see the errors of your breeding will stick by you; pastors
and elders and all will come in if I let you alone. — Quoted by J. B. Mozley,
Essays, ' Lord Strafford. ' Scotticism, Protestantism, Catholicism, Presbyter
ianism. For our part, we should say that the special habit or peculiarity
which distinguishes the intellectual manifestations of Scotchmen — that, in short,
in which the Scotticism of Scotchmen most intimately consists — is the habit
of emphasis. All Scotchmen are emphatic. . . . This habit of emphasis, we
believe, is exactly that perfervidum ingenium Scotorum which used to be
remarked some centuries ago, wherever Scotchmen were known. But emphasis is
perhaps a better word than fervour. Many Scotchmen are fervid too, but not
all; but all, absolutely all, are emphatic. No one will call Joseph Hume a
fervid man, but he is certainly emphatic. And so with David Hume, or Reid, or
Adam Smith, or any of those colder-natured Scotchmen of whom we have spoken;
fervour cannot be predicated of them, but they had plenty of emphasis. In men
like Burns, or Chalmers, or Irving, on the other hand, there was both emphasis
and fervour; so also with Carlyle; and so, under a still more curious
combination, with Sir William Hamilton. . . . Emphasis, we repeat,
intellectual emphasis, the habit of laying stress on certain things rather
than co-ordinating all, in this consists what is essential in the Scotticism
of Scotchmen. And, as this observation is empirically verified by the very
manner in which Scotchmen enunciate their words in ordinary talk, so it might
be deduced scientifically from what we have already said regarding the nature
and effects of the feeling of nationality. The habit of thinking emphatically
is a necessary |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — GREEK EORMS. 339 result of thinking much in the presence of,
and in resistance to, a negative; it is the habit of a people that has been
accustomed to act on the defensive, rather than of a people peacefully
evolved and accustomed to act positively; it is the habit of Protestantism
rather than of Catholicism, of Presbyterianism rather than of Episcopacy, of
Dissent rather than of Conformity. — David Masson, Essays (1856); 'Scottish
Influence in British Literature.' ventriloquism. Coleridge praised '
Wallenstein,' but censured Schiller for a sort of ventriloquism in poetry.
By-the-by, a happy term to express that common fault of throwing the
sentiments and feelings of the writer into the bodies of other persons, the
characters of the poem. — Henry Crabb Robinson, Diary, &c, vol. i. p.
396. truism. But, gentlemen, a truism is often thrust forward to cover the
advance of a fallacy. — Matthew Davenport Hill, Charge to the Grand Jury,
i860. scepticism. Scepticism, to be worth anything, should be the thoroughly
trained habit of looking deeply into all sides of the question, and not
merely at the outside of one or two. — Sir Edward Strachey, Spectator, Dec.
30, 1871. How readily new words are builded on this model may be seen from
the following: — The three schools of geological speculation which I have
termed Cata*trophism, Unifcrmitarianism, and Evolutionism, are commonly
supposed to be antagonistic to one another. — Address of the President of the
Geological Society, 1869. There is an impression, which is not worthy to be
called a conviction, but which holds the place of one, that the
indirferentism, scepticism, materialism, and pantheism, which for the moment
are so fashionable, afford, among them, an effectual defence against
Vaticanism. — W. E. Gladstone to Emile De Laveleye, 1875. The form witticism
seems to imply that -cism has been accepted as the formative, perhaps after
the pattern of Catholic is?n, ostracism, Stoicism. Ben Jonson has ciiycism: —
. . . inform'd, reform 'd, and transformed, from his original citycism; . . .
Cynthia's Revels, Act v. Sc. 4 (ed. 1756). * Substantives in -ism are now
formed just as readily as the z 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
340
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. verbs in -ize, from which indeed the noun-form -ism is an
outgrowth. 366. And so is -ist; as atheist, casuist, chemist, dogmatist,
egotist, idolist M, mesmerist, methodist, ministerialist, novelist,
publicist, ritualist, Wykehamist. publicist. The same evening I had an
introduction to one who, in an}' place but Weimar, would have held the first
rank, and who in his person and bearing impressed every one with the feeling
that he belonged to the highest class ot men. This was Herder. The interview
was, if possible, more insignificant than that with Goethe — partly, perhaps,
on account of my being introduced at the same time with a distinguished
publicist, to use the German term, the eminent political writer and
statesman, Friedrich Gentz, the translator of Burke on the French Revolution.
— H. C. Robinson, Diary. 1801. atheist, pantheist, polytheist. The whole
world seems to give the lie to the great truth of the being of a God; and of
that great truth my whole being is full: so that were it not for the voice
speaking so clearly in my conscience and my heart, I should be an atheist,
pantheist, or polytheist when I looked into the world. — J. H. Newman,
Apologia. In these two groups, -ist is the concrete to -ism the abstract, and
both from the Greek. But before the adoption of -ism, the -ist form had its
abstract correlative in the French -ery (331); as casuistry, chemistry,
palmistry, Rami s try Hooker i. 6. margin. 367. But fond as we appear to be
of the Greek verbs in -ize and the Greek nouns in -ism, -ist, we have drawn
very little from a Greek form that lies close beside these. There are Greek
verbs in -aze, and corresponding noun-forms in -asm, -ast, which have been
almost neglected by us. We have a few English nouns In -asm, as chasm,
enthusiasm, iconoclasm, pleonasm, protoplasm, sarcasm, spasm. enthusiasm. Wahabeeism
was the last wave of Mahomedan enthusiasm. — C. E. Trevelyan, Times, Nov. 14,
187 1. |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — GREEK UNALTERED. 34 1 And also -ast, as enthusiast,
periphrasis protopiast. Upon such considerations, to me it appears to be most
reasonable, that the circumference of our protoplasts senses should be the
same with that of nature's activity: unless we will derogate from his
perfections, and so reflect a disparagement on him that made us. — Joseph
Glanvil, The Vanity of Dogmatizing, 1 661. 368. In -ics, a plural collective
after the Greek -i<a, in which the last letter -a being the sign of
plurality has been translated into the English -s. Examples: — acoustics,
calisthenics, ethics, gymnastics, mathematics, mecha?iics, metaphysics,
mnemonics, optics, poetics, polemics, politics, statistics. Under this set an
observation may be made which has been for some time due — namely, that the traces
of French influence are now become sparse and rare. Here we have judged for
ourselves what to borrow from the Greek, and how to reduce it to English
form. In the instances before us both Latin and French express the idea
unlike ourselves. In French the plural politiques means politicians, while '
politics ' is expressed in the singular, la politique. We have an elder group
in which we have retained the French singular, as arithmetic, logic, magic,
music, rhetoric. There are a few weighty substantives in -em or -m, from
Greek -y^a, for substantives originating in a passive idea, though this is
now somewhat obscured. Such are diadem, emblem, problem, theorem, system.
369. A considerable number of Greek words have been adopted in their original
and unaltered forms. Such are ac?ne, CEgis, ambrosia, analysis, anathema,
antithesis, asthma, basis, bathos, canon, catastrophe, chaos, character,
chorus, climax, cosmos, crisis, criterion, diagnosis, dilemma, dogma, drama,
echo, encomium, enigma, epitome, exegesis, exodus, horizon, hypothesis,
nectar, nemesis, oasis, paralysis, parenthesis, pathos, phenomenon, sphinx,
stigma, synopsis, synthesis. |
|
|
|
|
|
342
VII. THE NOUN GROUP, Curtailed Substantives. 370. Next, we will notice a
group of nouns of a peculiarly national stamp. They are easy and familiar expressions
formed by a curtailment of longer words, and are mostly monosyllabic. It is
generally but not always the first part that has been retained. Thus for
speculation we hear spec, for omnibus bus, for cabriolet cab, for incognito
incog, stress for distress and compo for composition. The curt expression of
tick for credit is as old as the seventeenth century, and is corrupted from
ticket, as a tradesman's bill was formerly called. John Oldham (1683) has —
Reduced to want, he in due time felt sick, Was fain to die, and be interred
on tick. If it appear below the dignity of philology to notice such
half-recognised slang, let it be remembered that this science is quite as
much concerned with first efforts, of however uncouth an aspect, as it is
with those mature forms which enjoy the most complete literary sanction. The
words which one generation calls slang, are not unfrequently the sober and
decorous terms of that which succeeds. The term bus has made for itself a
very tolerable position, and cab is absolutely established. The curt form of
gent as a less ceremonious substitute for the full expression of '
gentleman,' had once made considerable way, but its career was blighted in a
court of justice. It is about twenty years ago that two young men, being brought
before a London magistrate, described themselves as ' gents.' The magistrate
said that he considered that a designation little better than ' blackguard/
The abbreviate form has never been able to recover that shock. A more
successful example of a curt form is the title Miss, |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — CURT FORMS. 343 which, though nothing but the first syllable of
Mistress, has won its way to an honoured position. 371. Already in 171 1, Mr.
Spectator, in an interesting paper for the study of the English language, No.
135, commented upon the tendency of these curt forms to get themselves
established. It is perhaps this humour of speaking no more than we needs
must, which has so miserably curtailed some of our words, that in familiar
writings and conversations they often lose all but their first syllables, as
' mob. rep. pos. incog.' and the like; and as all ridiculous words make their
first entry into a language by familiar phrases, I dare not answer for these,
that they will not in time be looked upon as part of our tongue. In fact,
these words have a crude and fragmentary look only while they are recent.
Give time enough, and the abruptness disappears. Who now thinks of mole
(talpa) as a curt form of moldiwarp German Sftauhrurf? Who finds it vulgar to
say Consols, though this is but a curt way of saying Consolidated Annuities?
A peal of bells is even an elegant expression, although it is curtailed from
appeal. Story is a pretty word, though curt for history. The short form has
always borne a comparatively familiar sense, as it does to the present day.
It is only used twice in the text of our Bible. But into the contents of the
chapters, which are couched in homelier speech, we find it more readily
admitted. Thus in Deuteronomy: — Chap. I. Moses speech in the end of the
fortieth yeere, briefly rehearsing the story, &c. Chap. II. The story is
continued. &c. Chap. III. The story of the conquest of Og king of Bashan.
372. Curtailments which are now obsolete, are in some cases preserved to us
in compound words. Thus the. word cobweb seems to indicate that the attercop
(old word for spider) was curtly called a cop or cob. We have been very easy
in our admission of long classic words; nay, we have exhibited a large
appetite for them. |
|
|
|
|
|
344 vn -
THE NOUN GROUP. But there still lingers the Saxon taste for the monosyllable,
and it often breaks out in the writer of fine taste, when for a moment free
of critical observers. An example of this occurs in a letter of Keble's,
wherein he has adopted the highly expressive word splotch. We have two girls
and little Edward with us, and a great splotch of sunshine they make in the
house. — Life of Keble, p. 394. This word has its habitat in Oxfordshire,
where schoolchildren may be heard to use it in speaking of a blot on their
copybooks. There has been in our time a visible reaction against the tyranny
of long words, in favour of the despised monosyllable. We have not indeed
arrived at the decision To banish from the nation All long-taifd words in
osity and ation, John Hookham Frere, Wkistlecraft (18 1 7); but ostentation
and pride of invention is now seen almost as often in short or Saxon-like
words as it is in the longrobed words of classic sweep. Perhaps it may be the
case that the Americans are leading the van in this. Certain it is that words
of this character do win their way into English literature from across the
Atlantic. The following is one of their new devices. Boston is the hub of the
world. So say those who, not being Massachusetts men themselves, are disposed
to impute extravagant pretensions to the good old Puritan city. The hub, in
the language of America, is the nave, or centre-piece of the wheel, from
which the spokes radiate, and on which the wheel turns. As the Americans make
with their hickory wood the best wheels in the world, they have some right to
give to one of the pieces a name of their own. But, however, Boston need not
quarrel with the saying. Nations, like individuals, are generally governed by
ideas, and no people to such a degree as the Americans: and the ideas which
have governed them hitherto have been supplied from New England. But
Massachusetts has been the wheel within New England, and Boston the wheel
within Massachusetts. It has therefore been the first source and foundation of
the ideas that have moved and made America; and is, in a high and honourable
sense, the hub of the New World. — F. Barham Zincke, Last Winter in the
United States (1868), p. 279. |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — FAMILIAR NAMES. 345 And the younger colonies likewise bear
their part in sustaining this English characteristic. In South Australia a hotel
or public-house is called a pub: About ten miles from Laura is Caltowie, a
township possessing an hotel or ' pub,' as we heard it gravely styled, a
post-office, a store, and two or three little farm-houses, all making a very
small figure in the midst of the great plain. The horses were baited seven
miles further on, at Jamestown, which boasts two 'pubs' of imposing
appearance. — Rosamond and Florence Hill, What we saw in Australia, 1875: p.
217. 373. Familiar abbreviations of Christian names belong here. They are
commonly made, with alteration or without, from the first syllable 1 . Will,
Tom, IVal (from Walter, according to its old faded-French pronunciation
Water), Sa??i, &c. These are specially liable to alteration from the
caprices of the little folk among whom they are most current, and to this
cause (mixed with the imperfection of the childish organs of speech and the
fondness which elder brothers and sisters have for propagating the original
speeches of the little ones) must be assigned such forms as Bob for Rob, Bill
for Will, Dick for Rich. Charles Dickens signed his writings 1 Boz ' after a
facetious pronunciation of Moses, which was current in his family. In the
case of names beginning with a vowel, the curt form takes a consonant, as
Ned, Noll, Nell t for Edward, Oliver, and Ellen. While we are upon these
familiar appellations, we may as well complete the list by noticing some
which do not spring from the causes here under consideration. Harry for Henry
is a rough English imitation of the sound of the |
|
|
|
|
|
34-6
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. French Henri \ Jack is the French Jacques, which has
attached itself somehow to the English John. 374. A survey of English nouns
would indeed be deficient which should omit that curt, stunt, slang element
to which we as a nation are so remarkably prone, and in regard to which we
stand in such contrast with our adoptive sister. The French language shrinks
from such things as it were from an indecorum. Our public-school and
university life is a great wellhead of new and irresponsible words. Gradually
they find their way into literature. For example: — chaff. He wishes to
confound the whole school of those who think that a faith is to be tested by
the inward experience of life. And so he sets himself to overwhelm Mr. Hughes
with ridicule, rioting in that kind of banter vulgarly described as 'chaff,'
and bringing up against him the stock difficulties which can always be cast
in the way of belief. — J. Llewelyn Davies, The Gospel a?id Modern Life, p.
xviii. 375. And as such words in shoals proceed from the gathering-places of
young Saxons, so also a kindred work is being achieved by that young Saxon
world which lives beyond the western main. It almost seems as if they, or a
certain school among them, were bent on raising a standard of rebellion, and
were resolved to dispute that superiority which the classic tongues have so
long exercised over our barbarian language. Nothing in American literature bears
such a stamp of originality and determination as those writings in which
reverence for antiquity is utterly cast aside, and their old obedience to the
King's English is thrown to the winds. The genial and suasive satire of the
Biglow Papers on the one hand, and the mocking laughter of Hans Breitmann on
the other, are at one in their contemptuous rejection of the old senatorial
dignity of literary language. It is in both cases an audacious renunciation
of |
|
|
|
|
|
YANKEE
DICTION. 347 the long captivity in which our speech and literature have been
held under classic sway, and it seems to us at first sight as little less
than an open declaration of the prior claims of familiarity and barbarism.
But it cannot be denied that Mr. Lowell has practically demonstrated the
power of mind over matter, the power of resolution over restraint, the
superiority of thought in literature over every conventional limit that can
be imposed upon the forms of expression. It is an assertion of the natural
freedom of dialect and language and diction. Who, with any feeling for
humour, can refuse to condone the literary audacity of the following? Nay,
who can refuse to it a certain degree of admiration? I 've noticed thet each
half-baked scheme's abettors Are in the habbit o' producin' letters, Writ by
all sorts o' never-heerd-on fellers, 'Bout as oridgenal ez the wind in
bellers; I 've noticed tu, it 's the quack med'cines gits (An' needs) the
grettest heap o' stiffykits. Or who with any love of nature can let the
dialect blind him to the burst of real poetry that there is in this
description of the New England spring, ' that gives one leap from April into
June '? — Then all comes crowdin' in; afore you think, The oak-buds mist the
side-hill woods with pink, The cat-bird in the laylock bush is loud, The
orchards turn to heaps o' rosy cloud, In ellum-shrouds the flashin' hangbird
clings, An' for the summer vy'ge his hammock slings, All down the
loose-walled lanes, in archin' bowers The barb'ry droops its strings o'
golden flowers .... 'Nuff sed. June's bridesman, poet o' the year, Gladness
on wings, the bobolink is here; Half hid in tip-top apple blooms he swings Or
climbs against the breeze with quivering wings, Or givin' way to 't in a mock
despair Runs down, a brook o' laughter, thru the air. Mr. Lowell's dialect is
the true Yankee, the speech of the Northern farmer. It is difficult to
believe that Mr. Leland's |
|
|
|
|
|
34^
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. poetry represents any existing form of speech, but it is
described as Pennsylvanian German 1 . Returning to our own side of the Atlantic,
we may observe that in a gradual and unobserved manner we are continually
admitting words which once were disowned and disallowed. Two remarkable
examples are clever and fun, words now in perfect credit; of which Johnson
could call the former ' a low word ' and the latter ' a low cant word/
Diminutives. 376. The general motive of the employment of such words is to
escape conventionality; that is, to escape the triteness and dryness of that
which is current and hackneyed; and this because the speaker longs to mingle
with his words something of character or of humour or of good-fellowship — in
a word something personal and emotional. Now it is plain, without reasoning,
that to call each thing by the name that everybody calls it, without any
little twist or twirl, is apt to seem commonplace and vapid. Kindly feelings
desire a little playfulness in conversation; the sterner sentiments have also
their claim for an utterance to fit them, — and both of these are at times
rebellious against conventionality. Consequently there has been found in most
languages a faculty of shaping certain words to the temper of the speaker,
or, so to say, of giving them a moral colouring. Emotional substantives have
been commonly called Diminutives, because the sentiments which have been most
active in this work have been those of affectionate partiality on the one
hand, or of contempt on the other; and therefore the idea of little ' has
been much felt in this strain of words. In some lan |
|
|
|
|
|
DIMIN
UTIVES. 349 guages, such as the Italian, the term Diminutive appeared too
narrow, and the grammarians made another class by the name of Augmentatives.
But in this way of proceeding it would be necessary to invent more names, for
varieties may be found as numerous as the shades of human feeling; and
therefore it seems better to acquiesce in the common designation, however
inadequate, only remembering what it really signifies. The Diminutives are
emotional substantives, expressive of liking or aversion, of admiration or
contempt, and accordingly conveying a good or a bad sense, a magnifying or
diminishing effect. By the Italian -accio we may see how hard these
variations are to classify. Masaccio was bom about the beginning of the
century, in Valdarno, between Florence and Arezzo, and died as early as 1443,
as was suspected, by poison. This distinguished artist merits particular
attention, as having been the first who gave a decided impulse to the new
direction of Art. Of the particulars of his life nothing more is known than
that (as Vasari informs us) he was originally named Tommaso, or Maso, and
that the reproachful 'accio' was added from his total neglect of all the
external relations of life, in his exclusive devotion to Art. — The Schools
of Painting in Italy, translated from the German of Kugler, by a Lady; ed.
Eastlake, Book iv. ch. I. 377. There has been good material in the Gothic
languages for a development of this kind, but it has not been matured in our
family as it has in the Romance languages, and especially in Latin and Italian.
In the Gothic family there are two primary diminutival formatives, namely l
and k. In the Mcesogothic remains we find only l, as in Wulfila (little wolf)
commonly written (after the Greek) Ulphilas, Atlila, Totila. For the rest,
the general rule is that l is High Dutch, and k is Low Dutch. The observant
traveller in the German cantons of Switzerland, where the old Alemannic is
spoken, knows the constant termination of substantives in -//, with Umlaut of
root-vowel. A flower is bliimli, foot is fiissli '; and if you ask your way,
you are told to take such a s/rass/i, leading |
|
|
|
|
|
3$0
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. . by such a hausli. The generality of this usage almost
kills the diminutival effect. From the Alps towards the Northern Sea, the l
form wanes as the k waxes. In Swabia it becomes -le; in Franconia there is a
meeting and a curious junction of the l and k forms, in a diminutival -lich,
of which Grimm has only plurals to offer from the mouth of the people, but he
quotes an example in the singular number from the old Franconian poet Hans
Sachs, who has geltlich for geldlein or geldchen. In the possession of the
two forms -lein and -cfren the German language exhibits its composite nature,
and while it cherishes the title of Hoch Deutsch shows itself to be a mixture
of High and Low. Indeed the lowland -cfyen is prevailing more and more, and
shutting -lein up into the dignified seclusion of poetry and literature. The
n in these forms is secondary because flexional; at first it appeared only in
oblique cases. Thus, in the Nibelungen Lied, the nominative Etzel makes
srenitive Etzelines, accusative Etzeln: then later a nominative Etzelin. Of
the diminutival l in the Low Dutch dialects there is little trace. Among our
English examples of l, 316, the reader may catch a faint shadow of diminution
in a few; — perhaps in bubble, kernel, nipple, ripple, skittle, stubble,
whistle: our remnants of the K-form are more considerable, as -ock, 317, and
-kin, as bodkin, bumpkin, canakin Sh, gherkin, lambkin, mannikin, pipkin,
piwipkiti, but the diminutival sense is mostly effete. In Scottish -kie,
-kinie, as in the following quotation: — A form of expression which has been
a great favourite in Scotland, in my recollection, has much gone out of
practice — I mean the frequent use of diminutives, generally adopted either
as terms of endearment or of contempt. Thus, it was very common to speak of a
person whom yon meant rather to undervalue, as a mannie, a bodie, a bit
bodie, or a wee bit mannie. The bailie in Rob Roy, when he intended to
represent his party as persons of no importance, used the expression ' We are
bits o' Glasgow bodies.' In a |
|
|
|
|
|
DIMINUTIVES.
351 popular child's song, we have the endearing expression, ' My wee bit
laddie/ "We have known the series of diminutives, as applied to the
canine race, very rich in diminution. There is— I. A dog; 2. A doggie; 3. A
bit doggie; 4. A wee bit doggie; and even 5. A wee bit doggikie. A
correspondent has supplied me with a diminutive, which is of a more
extravagant degree of attenuation than any I ever met with. It is this — ' A
peerie wee bit o' a manikinie.' It is recorded in the family that Mrs. Mure,
on receiving from David Hume on his deathbed the copy of his History, which
is still in the library of Caldwell, thanked him very warmly, and added, in
her native dialect, which she and the historian spoke in great purity, ■ O
David, that's a book ye may weel be proud o', but before ye dee ye should
burn a' your wee bukies.' — E. B. Ramsay, Reminiscences of Scottish Life and
Character, ch. v. The form -ing (-ling) from the elemental associations described above, 318, slid
occasionally into a diminutival effect, as in the courteous appellation
lordings, once popular in addressing a mixed assembly, where we should now
say ' Gentlemen!' — Lysteneth lordynges gente and fre. — Percy Folio, iii.
16. But this Diminutive is now active only in the -ling form, an instrument
of fondness or compassion trending away towards contempt '.—changeling,
duckling, foundling, gosling, nurseling, sir angeling, suckling, willing ,
youngling. The form -ie, well known as the Scottish diminutive, and well
illustrated in the quotation from Dean Ramsay — broivnie, burdie, caddie,
daddie, doggie, geordie, giftie, kelpie, laddie, lambie, mannie, minnie,
mousie, platie little plate (Burns), wifie — occurs in English only in
childish talk, aunty, daddy, Georgy, Johnny, mammy. But in Dutch it is in
great force, the old -kin having been abandoned in favour of -je, as kalfje
(little calf), katje (little cat), huisje (little house). More obscurely this
Diminutive appears in some districts of Switzerland (Grimm iii. 684), so that
its area was perhaps once very extensive. But the Diminutive at present most
active in English is the French -et, -ette, -let, as brooklet, gablet, islet,
kinglet, lancet, ringlet, streamlet, tablet, wago?ietle, 334. |
|
|
|
|
|
$$2
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. gable/. Rising against the screen . . . stood an old
monument of carved wood, once brilliantly painted ... It lifted its gablet,
carved to look like a canopy, till its apex was on a level with the
book-board on the front of the organ-loft; George MacDonald, Annals of a
Quiet Neighbourhood, ch. ii. In other families besides the Gothic, we find
the same consonants employed for Diminution. In Latin we find the same agency
of the l and the c (k) and the subordinate n. Diminutives with l; hortus
hortulus, cella cellula, caput capitulum: with c; homo homuncio: with c and
l; artus articulus, mulier muliercula, corpus corpusculum: with;/ and c and
l; homo homunculus, narratio narratiuncula. This will serve to indicate the
wide area and high antiquity of the Diminutival forms, as also to hint the
wealth of Diminutives in Latin, out of which has grown the profusion in
modern Italian. Were it not for their luxuriance in Dutch and Scotch one
might be moved to generalize and say that Diminutives seem to expand in the
sunny south and to contract as we follow them northwards. Exuberant to the
south of the Alps, they thrive in the southern more than in the northern
Teutonic lands; while in Scandinavia their growth is scanty, but hardly
scantier than in English. It is (probably) as a compensation for our poverty
in emotional expressions that we seek relief in cant and slang. 370. As
regards the influence of the emotions on the forms of words, the Italian and
the English stand at opposite poles: A far nienle life promotes the graces:
They pass from dreamy bliss to wakeful glee, And in their bearing, and their
speech, one traces A breadth of grace and depth of courtesy That are not
found in more inclement places; Their clime and tongue are much in harmony;
The cockney met in Middlesex or Surrey, Is often cold, and always in a hurry.
Frederick Locker, London Lyrics, ' The Invitation to Rome. |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — INFLECTION, 353 |
|
|
|
|
|
354 VII
> THE NOUN GROUP. numerous among the Strong substantives, it was not
absolutely the most frequent form in the current of the old language. 379.
The really dominant pluralform in Saxon times was that of the Weak Declensions,
which ended in -an. Of these we retain some relics, as oxen, eyne; — the
latter only in poetry. In Chaucer's time it was spelt eyen, which comes
nearer to the Saxon eagan. Thus, in the description of the Monk— His eyen
stepe and rollyng in his hed. In the Northern dialect it appeared as ene, in
modern Scotch written een. Grete ene and gray, with a grym loke. Troy Booh,
3821. 380. We have indeed other plurals in. -en; but they are younger than
Saxon times. They are a memorial of the fact that this form was dominant
throughout the country during the transition period; and they indicate that,
had it not been for a stronger external influence, the plural -en would have
become as general in modern English as it is in modern German. Such is the
form shoon, shoes, still extant in spoken Scotch; also within the horizon of
our English reading, if not of our speaking or writing. We will not leaue one
J^ord. one Gentleman: Spare none, but such as go in clouted shooen.' 2 Henry
VI, iv. 2. 178. Such are brethren, children, housen (Gloucestershire and
Suffolk), hosen. The latter word is in our Bible, Daniel iii. 21. Mr.
Barnes's Poems in the Dorset Dialect supply others, as cheesen, furzen.
Spenser has fone, meaning foes, Faery Queene, iii. 3. 33. This is an orthographical
transformation which resulted from the institution of a silent ^-final. |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — PLURALITY. 3$$ In the same Style of orthography is eyne, which
also dates from the sixteenth century: The Cat with eyne of burning coale,
Now couches from the Mouses hole. Pericles, Act iii. Prologue 5. The familiar
forms brethren and children are cumulate plurals. They have added the -en
pluralform on to an elder plural; for brether and childer were plurals of
brother and child. The form sisieryn was common enough in the fifteenth
century, as ' bretheryn and sisteryn.' The form sisiren is said to be active
in America, in the phraseology of the meeting-house, as the counterpart of
brethren. But now we say sisidrs, just as we also say eggs, lambs. All these
are examples of the gradual assimilation of the out-standing archaisms. The
plural of Saxon erg was ccgru (compare German di, plural Gier), but in the
fourteenth century we find Wiclifs constant form is ey, plural tyren — that
is to say, the Saxon plural with addition of x. In the Wiclifite versions we
find two plurals of lamb, as in Isaiah v. 1 7: Wiclif, 1384. Purvey, 13S8.
Anii lombis shul be fed aftir ther And lambren schulen be fed bi her order,
and desertes in to plente turned ordre, and comelyngis schulen ete
decomeiingus shul ete. sert places turned in to plentee. Another kind of
cumulation sometimes takes place. The modern s gets added to its old rival x.
In the passage just quoted from 2 Henry VI, the First and Second Folios have shooen,
the Third has shoon, and the Fourth has shoons \ With this may be classed the
Norfolk boy-expression for birds' nests, which is buds' nesens. It was by the
French influence, leading the van of education for three centuries, that the
plural in s, which held a secondary place in Saxon grammar, became the
universal law of English grammar. Aa 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
$$6
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. 381. Some pluralforms originated in Umlaut. 128. The
plurals feet, geese, men, teeth, made by internal vowel-change from foot,
goose, man, tooth; the forms lice,?nice, frenchified orthographies of the
Saxon plurals lys from singular lus, and mys from singular mus, — are relics
of an ancient class which had a flexional i (now lost) causing Umlaut. 127.
In the Old Saxon of the Heliand this i may be seen: the plural of fot is
foti; the plural of bok is buoki, and accordingly in Anglo-Saxon hoc had for
its plural bee; but now it is books. In the transition period the plural of
goat appears as gayte and geet, but now it is goats. And here it should be
observed that there is no natural connection between Umlauted forms and
Plurality. No more than there is between the Umlaut and the Subjunctive Mood,
for which in German it has most usefully provided. 128. In each instance, the
Umlauted form chanced to come handy, and was adopted for the purpose. Here
also we get cumulate examples. The plural of cu, cow, was once cy, a form
which survives in the Scotch kye; but it has received the superadded n, and
has become kine. The Scottish breeks is a cumulate example, the modern s
being imposed upon the old umlaut plural; for in Saxon it was singular broc,
plural brec. On the other hand, chicken, which has been taken for a plural in
n, is really a singular; and chickens its simple plural. Accordingly chick is
a young and deductive singular, derived from the imaginary plural chicken. In
like manner pea is a modern invention. It is a mere creature of gram"
mar, a singular begotten of the young plural pease. In the sixteenth century
pease was singular, and peason or peasen was plural, as we see in the
following passages from Surrey: — |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — PLURALITY. ^ All men might well dispraise My wit and
enterprise, If I esteemed a pease Above a pearl in price. Tickle treasure,
abhorred of reason, Dangerous to deal with, vain, of none avail; Costly in
keeping, past not worth two peason; Slipper in sliding, as is an eeles tail.
Other like cases, in which a new singular has been provided by the removal of
s and its reserval for the plural, are cherry, A. S. cyrs, French cerise,
Latin cerasus; sherry, in Shakspeare sherris; shay from French chaise. The
s-plural has had in English the effect of making the close of a word almost
untenable by s unless the word be of the plural number. The French singular
richesse has become an English plural riches. And when we see an s-ending
word construed as a singular, however justly, it has somehow a strange and
uncouth air: as Taunton had been turned into a shambles. — T. B. Macaulay,
History, ch. vii. Evil news rides fast, while good news baits. — John Milton.
382. There are two words, which have one form for singular and plural, viz.
sheep and deer. To these might be added swine, only that it seems now to be
accepted, perhaps by false analogy with kine, as a plural, while sow and the
upstart pig fill the office of the singular. These are the relics of a group
of Saxon neuters, which in the plural nominative and accusative were
flexionless. Such were leaf, (5ixg, wif, word, and many others, of which the plural
was the same as the singular; not as now, leaves, things, wives, words. Those
words which we have adopted from Latin or Greek in the singular nominative
unaltered, have usually been pluralised according to Greek and Latin grammar.
Thus |
|
|
|
|
|
,,-8
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. the plural of phenomenon is phenomena, of oasis oases, of
terminus termini, of fungus fungi. But occasionally we see the plurals in
English form, as when Dr. Badham entitles his book, not Edible Fungi, but
Esculent Funguses, and uses this plural all through it, as No country is
perhaps richer in esculent Funguses than our own; we have upwards of thirty
species abounding in our woods, ^p. xin.) Some few substantives which we have
made out of unaltered Latin words, not being nouns in that language, have no
Latin plurality. These we have pluralised with English s, as items,
interests. Benevolent subscribers too seldom examine the items of a report.—
Glnxs Baby, ix. Gender of Substantives. 383. The Saxon formative of the
substantive feminine was -en, as God Deus, gyden dea; wealh servus, wylen
serva, ancilla; %egen minister, pynen ministra. But this formative has been
supplanted and so nearly extinguished that it is difficult to find an extant
specimen to ,erve°for an illustration. Beyond sporting circles, not one
person in a thousand is aware that vixen is the feminine of fox. In general
speech it is only known as a stigma for the character of a shrewish woman.
Yet this is the history of vixen) and it is a very well preserved from,
having enjoyed the shelter of a technical position. Not only is there the -en
termination, but also the thinning of the radical vowel by Umlaut, as in the
Saxon examples above. So also in German ftucfyS, ftudtfum. An example which
maintained itself long after the extinction of its congeners was mynchyn
Saxon mynecen, the feminine of monk, Saxon munuc. At the time of the
suppression |
|
|
|
|
|
1.
SUBSTANTIVES — GENDER. 359 of the religious houses Dr. London wrote as
follows from Godstow, April 17, 1535, to Crumwell: — And if the kings grace's
pleasur be, notwiths'onding her (the lady abbess's) desyer for suche
considerations as niovith hys grace for the reformation of suche abuses, to
tak the howse by surrendyr, then I besek yo r lordeshipp to admytt me an
humble sutar for my lad)' and herre sisters, and the late Abbasse, and suche
as haue covent seales for lyvings in that howse, that they may be favorably
orderyd, specially my lady wich lately payd herre fyrst fruyts and was
indaungeryd therfor unto herre frynds. Many of the mynchyns be also agyd, and
as I perceyve few of the other haue any frynds, wlierefor I besek yo r
lordeschipp to be gude lord unto them. 384. That which superseded the Saxon
feminine was the French -ess, as abbess, arbitress, countess, duchess,
empress, giantess, goddess, governess, laundress, marchioness, peeress,
princess, sempstress, songstress, traitress. Governess is not invariably
applicable as the feminine of governor. There are considerations which
override grammar, as our practice of Common Prayer witnesses. Yet I remember
where I heard ' Queen and Governess ' in church. Grammar has brought this
class of cases under another rule which she has made, namely this, that the
masculine gender is more worthy than the feminine. But this is only one of
the many indefinable limitations that tend to repress this -ess formative,
and to confine it to an area much narrower than that which it once occupied.
Numerous are the examples now obsolete which are found in books: — archilectress,
buildress, caplainess, daunceress, flatteress, intrudrcss, knightess,
neighbouress, pedlcress, sovcraintess, thrall ess, vengeress, zvaileress 1 .
In Doncaster the feminine of Alderman is Aldress or Aldresse 2 . 1 An
extensive list may be seen in Dr. Trench's English Past and Present, seventh
ed. ^1870"), p. 213. - Jackson's History of Doncaster Church, fclio
1855, plate ix.; where we see next to the pew of the .Mayor and Aldermen one
that it marked as ' Aldresses' Pew.' The expression occurs in other parts of
the same work. |
|
|
|
|
|
360
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. In fact the application of this form has been so
narrowed, that we cannot properly be said to have a feminine formative at
all. A limited number of privileged examples there are, but not a free
feminine formative. We cannot make new feminines for every emergency, as the
Germans can with their -inn. We can say lioness and tigress, but not
elephantess nor cameless. As an illustration that we cannot make a feminine
substantive to meet a new occasion, I instance the following. There is a
place in the Psalms where our word ' preachers ' is in the original a
feminine form. Dr. Marsh, in a collection of notes from Scripture concerning
the ministry of women, brings in this passage, but he can only array his
Hebrew fact is an English dress by an ungainly compound: — Psalm lxviii. 1 1
reads in the original thus: — 'The Lord gave the word, great was the company
of women-publishers.' — Memoir of the Rev. William Marsh, D.D., by his
Daughter (1867), P- 39 8 This example opens to us the fact that the only
means we have which is of general application for the expression of gender,
is a compound expression, as man-child, man-servant, maid-servant, men-singers,
women- singers, he-ass, she-ass, hegoat, she-goat, boar-pig, dog-wolf,
cock-sparrow, hen-sparrow, billy-goat, nanny-goat, tom-cat. 385. Examples
like sempstress, songstress, remind us that a Saxon termination estre was
sometimes used as a feminine formative, whereof a trace remains in these
words between the root and the French termination. Thus we find fkSelere and
fiSelestre, fiddler and fiddleress; r^edere, reader, with a feminine
r^edestre; witega prophet and witegestre prophetess. The only pure example
now surviving is spinster, which was the feminine of spinner. But we cannot
recognise the termination -sier as being, or as having been at some time
past, a formative exclusively |
|
|
|
|
(delwedd E6369) (tudalen 361) |
1 . SUB
ST A NTIVES — CONCL USION. 3 6 1 feminine. Not only does the present use of
such old words as Baxter, huckster, maltster, songster, Webster, not to urge the
more recent oldster, youngster, punster, roadster, make it hard to prove them
all feminines, but if we push our enquiries in every direction, we nowhere
find the group clearly denned as such, except in modern Dutch. There was in
AngloSaxon b.ecere and bjecistre, and yet Pharaoh's baker in Genesis xl. is
bjecistre. A fine historical example, which is not likely to have been
feminine at any time, is deemster. The isle [of Man] is divided into '
sheddings ' (German Scheidungen, boundaries or separations). The judges are
called ' deemsters,' that is, doomsters, or pronouncers of judgment. The
title of the king is ' our doughtful * Lord.' The place of proclaiming the
law is the 'Tinwald.' — H. C. Robinson, Diary, 1833. Grimm has conjectured
that these nouns in -estre are all that is left of an older pair of
declensions, whereof one was masculine in -estra, the other feminine in
-estre. Concludi?tg Observation on the Substantive. 386. If from this point
we cast a look back over the verbs and substantives, we perceive a certain
quietude in the former, and a corresponding energy in the latter. In making
this remark I am naturally taking as my standard of comparison those
languages with which the philological student is most likely to be equipped.
The remark will hold good, as against the Latin language, still more so as
against the Greek, and most of all as against the Hebrew. In all of these
languages, but especially in the latter, the mental activity of the nation is
gathered up and concentrated in the verb. This is displayed by the immense
superiority of 1 i. e. doughty, fucfytig. |
|
|
|
|
|
362
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. the verb over the substantive in its attractive power of
symphytism, and its expressive stores of variability. Time has been when this
was partially true of our ancestral verb in the Gothic family. But it is no
more so. It certainly is not so in our own insular branch. During the modern
period, which dates from the fourteenth century, in which we have the
movements of the language historically before us, it is equally remarkable on
the one hand how little our verb has done to extend its compass, and on the
other hand how much the substantive has done to increase its variability. The
quotations of this section are a sufficient proof that some of the strongest
lineaments of character in the English language are now and have long been
finding their chosen seat of expression in our substantives. But while this
remark is made here at the close of the substantives, and with a particular application
to them, I would add that it applies in a general way to the whole nounal
group, and that its structural significance will become apparent in the third
division of the chapter on Syntax. 582. |
|
|
|
|
|
2.
ADJECTIVES— SAXON. 36 3 and case. They are furnished with a threefold power
of adaptation, in consideration of their dependent, relative and secondary
nature. Such is the adjective as against the substantive. Both are presentive
words; but the substantive is the primary, and the adjective is the secondary
presentive word. But what then is the adjective as against the verb? It is
plain that both verb and adjective are, as towards the substantive, secondary
words. There is no verb without a subject; and that subject is a substantive.
The verb and adjective alike have their very nature based upon the
presupposition of the substantive. Therefore the verb and the adjective are
both secondary words. They differ only in the force and energy of their
action. In the beginning of the last section verbs were compared to flame,
while substantives were only inflammable stuff. We may fitly continue this
metaphor, and say that adjectives are glowing embers. They not only give
warmth, and tell of a flame that has been, but they also retain the power of
future activity. If I say 'good man,' it is not asserted, but it is presented
to thought that the man ' is good.' If I say ' live dog/ it is contemplated
as predicable, though not predicated, that the dog ' lives.' Thus the
adjective is nothing more nor less than a dormant verb — a verb in a state of
quiescence. And by way of endeavouring to indicate the position which they both
hold in the general economy of language, we will designate them as Secondary
Presentives. 388. We begin our catalogue of English adjectives with a sample
of those whose history belongs to an elder stage — those which were already
ancient at the opening of the present era of our language. Such are: — dare,
bold, bright, cold, dead, dear , fair , free, fresh, fidl, good, gray, great,
green, hale, hard, high, late, lief light, like, long, mild, much, new, |
|
|
|
|
|
VII, THE NOUN GROUP. ni«h old quick, rathe,
red, rich, ripe, rough, sharp, short 2k s^ sooth, stark, strong, svart, «* -*
true, «,*,», worth, yare, young. Adjectives of obscure origin, winch emerged
m tha ™ sition period, seem to claim place here: such a word was the
adjective bad. Saxon Adjectival Forms. |
|
|
|
|
|
2.
ADJECTIVES — SAXON. $6$ yet the pure word still lives in New England, where they
talk of a 'brindle yearling,' or, as I believe it is spoken, 1 brindle
yerlin.' In Spenser the epithet of grasping covetousness is griple. Those
heapes of gold with griple Covetyse. The Faery Queene, i. 4. 31. tide, tickle
(381). So tide be the termes of mortall state. The Faery Queene, iii. 4. 28.
The Earl of Murray standing in so tickle terms in Scotland. — Earl of
Pembroke, 1569: quoted by J. A. Froude, History of England, ix. 427. As
brindle has been altered into brindled, so tickle into ticklish. The fact is,
we are no longer conscious that this termination makes an adjective: it is no
longer in effective vitality. This is the reason why brindle has been
converted into brindled, and tickle into ticklish, because all men know that
the terminations -ed and -sh signify the possession of a quality, but they
have forgotten that -le had this signification. In the same manner we now say
new-fangled, but the original word is new fangil or new f angel, as in the
Babees Book, p. 9, where the letter n is exemplified by the following line of
N-initials: To Noyous, ne to Nyce, ne to Newfangill. (Not to be) too
pressing, nor too fastidious, nor too eager for novelty. 390. In -m. These
have never been numerous within historical times. In Saxon there was earm
poor, and rum wide, the former of which is extinct, and the latter altered to
roomy. The only extant adjectives that I can quote in this class are grim,
warm. |
|
|
|
|
|
$66
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. There is a fine old poetic word brim, with much the same
variet/ of meaning as the modern brave: — She was brim as any bear. 391. In
-n, or -en. Here we are much richer: azurn M, brazen, el men, even, fain, golden,
heathen, hempen, leaden, linen, oaten, olden, open, silken, stem, threaden,
linnen, ireen Sp, wooden, woollen. This class of adjectives cannot be
separated by any decisive line from the participial forms, such as drunken,
shrunken, coral-paven M. oaten. Nought tooke I with me but mine oaten quill.
Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, 194. wooden. Wooden wals. — The Faery Queene,
i. 2. 42. elmen. When the elmen tree leaf is as big as a farding, It 's time
to sow kidney beans in the garding: When the elmen tree leaf is as big as a
penny, You must sow your beans if you mean to have eny. Popular Rhyme,
hempen. Slow are the steeds that through Germania's roads With hempen rein
the slumbering post-boy goads. Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin, The Rovers, 179S.
Tennyson has cedarn. Right to the carven cedarn doors. Recollections of the
Arabian Nights. This formative has been partially supplanted by the Latin
-ian. Thus our ancestors before the revival of letters never said Christian
but Christen: 'A Christen man/ |
|
|
|
|
|
2.
ADJECTIVES — SAXON. 367 Of local names this form is found in Furzen Leaze,
between Cirencester and Kemble; also in the geological designation of the
Wealden beds; and again in the topography of the sky, for Bacon in his Essays
has the Milken Way. There has been a good deal of discussion as to whether we
should write Whitsun Day or Whit Sunday. On the one side there is the
testimony of Whit Monday and Whit Tuesday pointing in the one direction, and
on the other hand that of Whitsun Tide and Whitsun Week pointing in the
opposite direction. As I understand the latter expressions, the Whitsun is
adjectival, only preserving the u by false analogy: Whitsun Tide I consider
as equal to Whitsen Tide. In 1533 we find the form Whilson: — ... on Whitson
yeue in the xxvth yere of the raigne of our said soueraigne lorde. — Quoted
in Arber's Roister Doister, p. 3. 392. In -r or -er. Examples: — clever,
slipper (the elder form for the modern slippery), wicker. Slipper is still
the common word in Devonshire, where they say, ' It 's very slipper along the
roads to-day.' And so in Surrey, the poet: — Slipper in sliding as is an
eeles tail. 393. In -sh, or by a French disguise -eh, representing the
Anglo-Saxon -isc. Examples: — apish, boorish, churlish, dwarfish Sh, foolish,
mannish Sh, outlandish, peevish, selfish, thievish, uppish, waspish. This
form has held a foremost position, and more than any other may be called the
old national adjective, but now it is less honourably employed than once it
was. It is the form of our earliest adjectives for designating nationalities:
— Welsh, Irish, Scottish, French, Ducth, Danish, Swedish, Spanish, Turkish,
Flemish, Polish. In a few cases, however, |
|
|
|
|
|
3^8
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. we have admitted the Latin -anus, as Roman, Italian,
Russian, German. Here the Germans, truer to old habit, still say 9t6mifd), Staliemfd),
SRuffifcfy, 2>eutfd). The antiquity of this form is sufficiently
demonstrated by the fact that it is the prevalent 'gentile' adjective with
all the nations of our family. The Germans call themselves 5>eutfd), the
Danes Dansk, the Norwegians Norsk, the Swedes Svensk, the Icelanders
Islendsk, and we call ourselves English, Englisc. Besides the recognised
nations there is many an obscure community that asserts its gentility by
setting up an -ish of its own. A friend, fresh from travel, writes that when
he arrived at the Tyrolese valley which is called ©robert $f)al, he asked
whether they spoke StaUenifdj or S)eutfcfy there? He was answered that they
spoke ©rbbnetifcfy. And as an illustration how green and vigorous the form is
in German to this day, we may observe it combining with modern classical
novelties, and making adjectives like meta})l)otijtf), meta^tyfifd),
tnettyobifdj, where we say metaphorical, metaphysical, methodical. Mr. Heard
would make a form * soulish ' to render the ^u^ko? of the New Testament, and
to stand for a contrast to spiritual, like feelifd) in German. He thinks it
would take root as selfish has done: — Thus selfish, now so thoroughly
naturalised in English, was a thorough barbarism two centuries ago. . .
.Selfish was used by the Scotch covenanters for self-seeking, as contrasted
with seeking God. — The Tripartite Nature of Man, p. 83, note. In England the
successive tides of Romanesque drove back this and many other forms. The
Latin -a?i was a ready substitute for -ish. Miles Coverdale, 1535, in Daniel
i. 4, has ' and to lerne for to speake Caldeish ' — a form that will be
sought in vain in our present Bible. |
|
|
|
|
|
2.
ADJECTIVES — SAXON. 369 elvisch = elf-like, uncanny, shy. He semeth elvisch
by his countenaunce, For unto no wigh: doth he daliaunce. G. Chaucer, Prologe
to Sire Thopas. mannish. We'll have a swashing and a martial outside, As many
other mannish cowards have That do outface it with their semblances. W.
Shakspeare, As You Like It, i. 3. 116. churlish. Where the bleak Swiss their
stormy mansions tread, And force a churlish soil for scanty bread. Oliver
Goldsmith, The Traveller. This termination is also put to adjectives, with a
diluting effect, as longish, sweetish, ticklish. 394. In -y or -ey,
representing the Saxon adjective in -ig, as ^emtig empty. Examples: — bloody,
burly, corny Ch and M, dainty Spectator 354, dirty, doughty, dusty, earthy,
fatly, flighty, fusty, filthy, flowery, foody, gouly, haughty, heady, hearty,
inky, jaunty, leafy Mark xi. Contents, lusty, mealy, mighty, milky, misty,
moody, murky, musty,?iasly, noisy, oily, plashy, pretty, ready, reedy, rusty,
saucy, silky, silly, speedy, steady, sturdy, sulky, trusty, weedy. The word
silly has the appearance of belonging to another group, namely those in -ly;
but the Saxon s^el-ig and the transitional seely were the precursors of the
form silly, which appears as early as Spenser: — She wist not, silly Mayd,
what she did aile. The Faery Queene, iii. 2. 2. There has been a certain
amount of assimilation from French forms, as hardy, which is the French
hardi. Especially has this formative been confused with the French . b b |
|
|
|
|
|
VII THE
NOUN GROUP. 370 • if Latin -ivus, as tardy from French tardif, jolly from L
o'ld ^rlh joU, In the case of caiHff, however, we have preserved the French/very
emphatically. Chaucer uses>^; but in Spenser it is jolly . The first of
them by name Gardante hight, A iolly person and of comely vew. ' J J The F a
ery Queene, 111. 1-4 5 395 Reversely-we find genuine members of this class if
thev belonged to French adjectives in -if. C^find hfme £ of Chancer the naUve
word ^ Wri S^S/^m in the highest state of activit, Th «: if more freedom, for
example, abont making new adjectives in -y than in -?^. Now »- 1 ta* a a™**
'^^ ,„,,. foody. L i. *„ the sable fleet from Ida's foody leas. Who brought
them to the sable ^^ w xi . I04 . plashy. All but von widow'd, solitary
thing, That feebly bends beside the plashy spring. Oliver Goldsmith, n«
Deserted Village. bloomy, lawny, shadowy. Shelley, iW< o/W«m. Canto .. SITU,
form is sometimes fonnd in modern names of places, iM «**4 —** «•*"»* ■***
""**** |
|
|
|
|
|
2.
ADJECTIVES — SAXON. 37 1 weaponed. & hee had beene weaponed as well as I,
he had beene worth both thee & mee. Eger and Grime, 1039. moated. . . .
there, at the moated-Grange, resides this deiected Mariana.— W Shakspeare,
Measure for Measure, iii. I. 251. As we can draw no decisive line between
participles in -en and adjectives in the same termination, so neither can we
distinctly sever between adjectives and participles in -ed. There are many
which everybody would call adjectives, and many which everybody would agree
to call participles. The distinction turns upon this —whether they can or
cannot be derived from a verb. This is, in fact, a participial adjective
which has never passed through the regular verbal process to that position;
and therefore such words often appear of abrupt introduction, and are
provocative of opposition. This has been the case with the word talented.
Talented, first used by Lady Morgan, is another instance of a word adopted in
spite of the purists, and within our memory.— I. B Heard The Tripartite
Nature of Man, p. 83, note. ' John Sterling, writing to Mr. Carlyle in 1835,
criticised his use of the word talented, which he called < a mere
newspaper and hustings word, invented, I believe, by O'Connell.' — Life
offohn Sterling, Part II. ch. ii. leisured. Was it true that the legislative
Chambers which were paid performed their duties more laboriously and
conscientiously than the British House of Commons? It was admitted in other
countries that that House stood at th~ head of the representative assemblies
of the world. (Cheers.) What other ' assembly was there that attempted to
transact such an amount of business? ' B b 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
372
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. (Hear.) What assembly was there whose members sacrificed
more of personal convenience and of health in the discharge of its duties?
(Hear.) The condition of this country was peculiar. There was a vast leisured
class to which there was nothing parallel on the face of the earth. — House
of Commons, April 5, 1870. 397. Next comes a form which we mention only to
deplore. This is the old Saxon adjectival form -iht or -eht, as staniht,
stony. Thus, in Cod. Dipl. 620/ ondlong broces on (5one stanihtan ford/ —
along the brook to the stony ford. This form is preserved in German, as
fcergtcfyt hilly, fcornictn thorny, ecf tcfyt angular, cjraftcr/t grassy,
fteinicfyt stony; and it makes one of the dainties of German poetry: Unb
OJcfen 511 jlecfrten irty tccficfrte %aax. And roses to wreath in his
goldilock hair. Wieland, Die Grazien, Bk. VI. This brings us to the close of
the first grade of adjectives, those which we may regard as Derivatives: —
those which follow are manifest Composites, they have been formed by the
combination of two words. 398. In -ly for -like. In Saxon this formative was
-Lie, which was at the same time a substantive meaning body, as it still is
in German, £etcf>. The transition from the substantival sense of body to
the symbolic expression of the idea of similarity, provokes a comparison with
a transition in the Hebrew, from the word for bone and body, which is D^', to
the pronominal sense of very or same. Examples: — childly Tennyson, cleanly,
earthly, godly, goodly, homely, kindly Litany, likely, lordly, steelly,
unmannerly, rascally, timely. ugly. What follye is tins, to kepe wyth
daunger, A greate mastyfe dogge and a foule ouglye beare? |
|
|
|
|
|
2.
ADJECTIVES — SAXON. 373 And to thys onelye ende, to se them two fyght, Wyth
terrible tearynge, A full ouglye syght. Robert Crowle)', Epigrams (1550), '
Of Bearbaytynge.' sleelly. Steel through opposing plates the magnet draws.
And steelly atoms culls from dust and straws. — Crabbe. The adjectival
expansion of this form has been checked by its occupation for adverbial
purposes. Often it happens when we come across it in our elder literature
adjectivelv used, we need a moment's reflection to put us in the train of
thought for understanding it. In the following passage from Chaucer's
Boethius, the adjective ivepely, in the sense of pathetic, would give most
readers a check. The passage is here printed with its marginal summary, as a
sample of the work of the Early English Text Society: — Blisful is pat man
pat may seen the clere welle of good. Happy is he that can see the lucid
blisful is he pat may vnbynde hym fro be bonde of heuy H^rfythrmanthat hath
freed himself erbe. T be poete of trace ["Orpheus] bat somtyme hadde
from terrestrial r rr \- r a r j chains! The Thra ry3t greet sorowe for the
dtt\> of hys wijf. aftir bat he ^^ith^effor , 1 , 1 1 L 1_ 1 , 1 11 the
l0SS ° f mS Wife ' hadde maked by hys wepely songes pe wodes meueable to
sousrht relief from music. His mourn rennen. and hadde ymaked pe ryueres to
stonden stille. woodslion^the 6 ., , , .. iiii- rolling rivers ceased mid
maked pe nertys and nyndes to loignen dredles hir to flow; the savage
beastsbecame heed sides to cruel lyou/zs to herkene his songe. (p. to6.) less
of their prey. In the adjective likely we have the curious phenomenon of the
altered form of a word coming to act as a formative to a better preserved
form of itself; the first and last syllables of the word being originally the
same word Lie. 399. In -some: — adventuresome, buxom, darksome, delightsome,
gladsome, handsome, irksome, quarrelsome, troublesome, wholesome, winsome. |
|
|
|
|
|
V n THE
NOUN GROUP. 3/4 This affix looks in spelling as if it belonged to the pronoun
s<me , bnt it is really conneeted with a Afferent pronoun, namely same. In
German -fan., as (angfom. adventuresome. And now at once, adventuresome, I
send Mv herald thought into a wilderness. John Keats, Endymwn. darksome.
Darksome uich. comes down- Robert Burns. The word buxom belongs here. This
might not be ! first sioht It does not look like one of the apparent at first
sight i of (he adjectives in -«««; but it is so, Detn German 6ie#m, ready to
to or comply. £f£ n" what their wailing meant;; yet d.d, Fo great
compassion of their sorow tad HU mTghtv waters to them buxome bee. H,s m,g
" The Faery Queene, m. 4. 32. 400 In -ward, as dawmvar J, /reward,
homeward, inward nZ'd, outward, toward, untoward, upward, wayward, woo, W
xtere was also an old adjective lateward, as we learn from |
|
|
|
|
|
2.
ADJECTIVES — FRENCH. 375 wayward. Our wayward intellect, the more we learn Of
nature, overlooks her author more. William Cowper, The Task, Bk. iii. leeward.
The vain distress-gun, from a leeward shore, Repeated — heard, and heard no
more. William Wordsworth, On the Power of Sound. In -fast, as shamefast,
stedfast. rootfast. 'Rootfast' and ' rootfastness ' {State Papers, vol. vi.
p. 534\ were ill lost, being worthy to have lived. — R. Chenevix Trench,
English Past and Present, iii. We might go on to enumerate the adjectives in
-full and -less, as fruitful, thankful, fruitless, thankless; but here we are
already edging the border that separates our present subject from the
adjectival compounds. We therefore close the Saxon division with a mention of
those adjectives which are formed by reduplication. Such are shilly-shally,
shipshape, wishy-washy. A weak, wishy-washy man, who had hardly any mind of
his own. — Anthony Trollope, The Last Chronicle of Barset, ch. vii. French
Forms. Of the French adjectives some are formless, as blank, brave, common,
fine, frank, grand, pale, poor, proud, quit. 401. The French adjectival
formatives are — -al, -el, -le -en, -ain, -eign -able, -ible -ant -ic -esque
-eous, -ious, -ous |
|
|
|
|
|
3J6
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. In -al, -el, -le (with glib e); from French forms like
loyal fern, loyale; cruel, cruelle; gentil, gentile. These are from Latin
forms -ah's, -elis, -His. 413. Examples: — cruel, feeble, gentle, humble,
loyal, moral, mortal natural, noble, simple, stable, subtle. Substantiate: —
cordial, jewel, victual. 402. In -en, -ain, -eign, French -ain, -agne, Old
French -aigne, Latin -anus, -aneus: — certain, foreign, sovereign? sudden
soudain. These have largely passed into the condition of substantives, as
campaign, captain, chaplain, chieftain chevetain (Cotgrave), fountain,
mountain, sovereign, villain, warden. Here also belongs the fabled name of
Cockaigne, French cocagne, Italian cuccagna cake-land, from cucca a cake.
403. In -able; -ible. Some of our commonest adjectives are of this type.
Examples: — acceptable, accessible, accountable, agreeable, appreciable,
approachable, available, audible, comfortable, contemptible, desirable,
estimable, forcible, irrepressible, justifiable, lamentable, manageable,
marketable, notable, noticeable, peaceable, practicable, preferable,
procurable, profitable, questionable, reasonable, remarkable, reputable,
respectable, responsible, seasonable, tolerable, valuable, vulnerable. This
form has much expanded in the last two centuries. Many adjectives of this
type which are now familiar to us do not occur in Shakspeare. He has neither
approachable, nor unapproachable, nor available, nor respectable. Although he
has accept, acceptance, accepted, he has not acceptable. Nor has he
accountable, although he has account, accountant, and accounted. He has
responsive but not responsible. And although he has value, valued, valuing,
and valueless, yet he has not valuable. When we consider the great
copiousness of Shakspeare's diction, and his unlimited command of the |
|
|
|
|
|
2.
ADJECTIVES — FRENCH. 377 English of his day, it seems almost as if these
terms, so familiar now, had not then been coined. 404. A remarkable change
has passed over the value of this termination in modern times. It was
formerly active or neuter in its signification; whereas it now inclines very
decidedly to a passive sense. Thus, the old word colourable was not employed
for that which is capable of being coloured, according to the prevalent
modern use of the termination, but for that which seeks to colour the aspect
of anything. colourable. The wisard could no longer beare her bord, But,
brusting forth in laughter, to her sayd: ' Glauce, what needes this
colourable word To cloke the cause that hath it selfe bewrayd? ' The Faery
Queene, iii. 3. 19. November 3, 1869. Vice-Chancellor Malins had before him
to-day the case of Bradbury v. Beeton, in which Mr. Jessel, as counsel for
Messrs. Bradbury and Evans, the proprietors of Punch, had asked for an
injunction to restrain the defendant from publishing a penny weekly
publication called Punch and Judy, on the ground that it was a colourable
imitation of Punch. A good instance of the same kind is persuasible, the
alternative rendering of enticing in 1 Cor. ii. 4; where, instead of
persuasible, we should now say persuasive; and this Dean Alford has adopted
in his Revised Version. But perhaps there is no word in which it is more
necessary to watch the shades of this transition, than in the word
comfortable, supposed in our day to convey a peculiarly English idea. That
was hardly its idea in the seventeenth century: — By the laws of nature and
civility we are bound to give fancy contentment both in ourselves and others,
as not to speak or do anything uncomelv, which may occasion a loathing or
distaste in our converse with men: and it is a matter of conscience to make
our lives as comfortable as may be; as we are bound to love, so we are bound
to use all helps that may make us lovelv, and indear us into the good
affections of others. As we are bound to give |
|
|
|
|
|
37 '8
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. no offence to the conscience of another, so to no power
or faculty either of the outward or inward man of another. — R. Sibs, Sotdes
Conflict, ch. xiii. (ed. 1658, p. 173). Another instance to the same effect
is: — personable. A thousand thoughts she fashiond in her mind, And in her
feigning fancie did pourtray Him such as fittest she for love could find,
Wise, warlike, personable, courteous, and kind. The Faery Qjieene, iii. 4. 5.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries this formative was sometimes
pronounced in English as it still is in French, with the accent on the
penultimate. We now say implacable, but Spenser sounded it implacable: — I
burne, I burne, I burne, then lowde he sayde, O how I burne with implacable
fyre! The Faery Quecne, ii. 6. 44. 405. In -ant, a French participle; as
blatant, buoyant, constant, elegant, errant, exorbitant, gallant, jubilant,
petulant, pleasant, rampant, recalcitrant, reluctant, significant. Many of
these are hardened into substantives, as commandant, inhabitant, quadrant^
serjeani, servant. Long unprogressive, this form began early to retire before
newer fashions. Out of the eight places in our English Bible where alien now
occurs, it was in 1 6 1 1 in four places only, aliant in three, alient in
one. Thus aliant has been remodelled to the pattern of the Latin alienus.
406. In -ic, after the French -ique. Examples: — angelic, apostolic, aquatic,
artistic, bombastic, domestic, fantastic, gigantic, heroic, lethargic,
majestic, narcotic, pedantic, public, rustic, specific, sulphuric, terrific,
volcanic. These were from the Latin -icus, and this, probably, was from the
Greek -ikos \ but in tracing the philology of our |
|
|
|
|
|
2.
ADJECTIVES — FRENCH. 379 own tongue, we are not so much concerned with the
remote as with the immediate source. And although the question of French or
Latin is at times a little embroiled, there can be no doubt that it was under
French auspices and tutorship that we first acquired this formative. This
point is set beyond doubt by the fact that we have another French formative
of which this forms the basis. A more dubious point it oftentimes is to
decide whether we ought to refer a given adjective to this French class, or
to the Greek class in -ic, which will be noticed below. Where the stock of
the word is un-Greek, we should class it here. But the reverse does not hold.
A few purely Greek w r ords belong here rather than below, as apostolic. In
this case, history tells us that the word was naturalized before the Greek
inundation. In other cases, such %s fantastic, although the word is Greek
throughout, yet the spelling with f instead of ph seems to vindicate it for
the French reign. Here too must be ranged those national and characteristical
designations, Arabic, Bardic, Gaelic, Gallic, Gothic, Icelandic, Ptolemaic, Quixotic,
Runic, Sardonic, Teutonic. 407. In -esque. Examples: — Barbaresque,
giganlesque, grotesque, picturesque. grotesque. Withered, grotesque,
immeasurably old. William Wordsworth, Fish-women, 1820. New adjectives of
this type are made every day. A. H. Clough indulged the fancy of thus
adjectiving Lord Macaulay (in private correspondence): — I have only detected
one error myself, but it is a very Macaulayesque one. He speaks of ' the oaks
of Magdalen ': they are elms. There was no occasion to say anything but
trees, but the temptation to say something particular was too strong.
Moreover, we sometimes see Dantesque, an imitation of |
|
|
|
|
|
3^0
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. the Italian, in which the adjective Dantesco and also
its adverb Dantescamente are well established. In fact, this French -esque
came from the Italian -esco, and this again from the Gothic -isc, German
-ifcfy. The Old High Dutch diuiisc, which in modern German is S)eutfcfy, is
in Italian Tedesco. So that this French -esque is radically the same as our
Saxon -isc and English -ish, only having performed a tour through two
Romanesque languages, it has come round to us with a new complexion, — an
excellent specimen of the way in which the resources of language are often
enriched by mere variation. 408. While we are touching Italian we may notice
an adjectival form which looks Italian, though we probably adopted it at
first from the Spaniards. This is the form -ese, in certain national
designations, as Annamese, Bengalese, Chinese, Cingalese, Genoese, Japanese,
Maltese, Portuguese, Tyrolese. This form is sometimes employed to
characterize the style of an author, especially where that style is something
that has never yet been named, as Carlylese. I do not know whether Macaulay
was the first to use this figure, with his Johnsonese. Madame D 1 Arblay had
carried a bad style to France. She brought back a style which we are really
at a loss to describe. It is a sort of broken Johnsonese, a barbarous patois,
bearing the same relation to the language of Rasselas, which the gibberish of
the Negroes of Jamaica bears to the English of the House of Lords. — T.B.
Macaulay, ■ Madame D'Arblay' (1843). This
orthography is rather Italian than Spanish. An Englishman is in Spanish
called Ingles, but
in Italian Inglese. At the time when our maritime expeditions and our
politics brought us most into contact with Spaniards, our literary habits
were more influenced by the Italian language than by the Spanish: and hence
it is quite probable that this |
|
|
|
|
|
2.
ADJECTIVES — FRENCH. 38 1 form may have been learnt of Spaniards and yet
dressed in an Italian orthography. 409. The formative -eous, -ous, with which
our French list concludes, is one that seems to thread together the Saxon
-wis, and the French -ois or -eux, and the Latin -ius or -osus, in one chain
of association. We can hardly disconnect the modern righteous from the Saxon
rihtwis, any more than we can courteous from French cortois, or gracious from
gracieux, which is the spelling of the word in English of the year 1402, as
may be seen above, 71. Examples: — boisterous, covetous, dexterous,
disastrous, erroneous, glorious, gracious, jealous, licentious, marvellous,
meritorious, mischievous, multitudinous Sh, necessitous, noxious,
obstreperous, outrageous, pious, poisonous, riotous, serious, specious,
timorous, treacherous, zealous. joyous, courteous, gracious, spacious. Long
were it to describe the goodly frame, And stately port of Castle Joyeous,
(For so that Castle hight by commun name) Where they were entertaynd with-
courteous And comely glee of many gratious Faire Ladies, and of many a gentle
knight, Who, through a Chamber long and spacious, Eftsoones them brought unto
their Ladies sight, That of them cleeped was the Lady of Delight. The Faery
Queene, iii. I. 31. slercoraceous. The stable yields a stercoraceous heap.
William Cowper, The Task, Bk. iii. obstreperous. Nor is it a mean praise of
rural life And solitude, that they do favour most Most frequently call forth,
and best sustain, These pure sensations; that can penetrate The obstreperous
city; on the barren seas Are not unfelt. — William Wordsworth, The Excursion,
Bk. iv |
|
|
|
|
|
3^2
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. me/odions, spacious. Dan Chaucer, the first warbler,
whose sweet breath Preluded those melodious bursts, that fill The spacious
times of great Elizabeth With sounds that echo still. Alfred Tennyson, Dream
of Fair Women. Bumptious was a slang adjective which appeared about 1830 at
Oxford and Cambridge. It is now sometimes seen in literature: — ' Look at
that comical sparrow,' she said. ' Look how he cocks his head first on one
side and then on the other. Does he want us to see him? Is he bumptious, or
what?' — George Macdonald, The Seaboard Parish, ch. xi. 410. Here we bring
our French list to an end, but not without the observation, which has been
already made above under the Substantive, that the line of division between
our French and Latin groups is much blurred. The general case is this: We
took the form itself from the French; but the great bulk of the words that
now constitute the group, have been derived to us from the Latin. But it
should be added that many words seem now most easily to be traceable to the
Latin, which we originally borrowed from the French. For in the great
latinising tyranny, many words were purged from the tinge of their French
original, and reclaimed to a Latin standard. The delitable of Chaucer and
Piers Plowman had become delectable long before John Bunyan wrote of the
Delectable Mountains. When the learned of the nation were steeped in Latin,
vast quantities of French words in our language had a new surface of Latin
put upon them. |
|
|
|
|
|
2.
ADJECTIVES — LATIN. 383 Latin Adjectival Forms. 411. The Latin formatives are
— -ose -ive -ile, -il -ine -ary -atory -ent -lent -ate -al -ieal -an, -ian
-arian -alian. -ose. We begin our Latin list with a second issue of the Latin
termination -osus. It is as markedly modern as the previous one is
distinguished for its old standing in the language. It has an Italian tinge.
Examples: — bellicose, globose M, gloriose, grandiose, jocose, operose,
otiose, varicose. otiose. We lay out of the case such stories of supernatural
events as require on the part of the hearer nothing more than an otiose
assent; stories upon which nothing depends, in which no interest is involved,
nothing is to be done or changed in consequence of believing them. — W.
Paley, Evidences, ii. 1. operose. I heard Dr. Chalmers preach. It was a
splendid discourse against the Judaical observance of the Sabbath, which he
termed ' an expedient for pacifying the jealousies of a God of vengeance,' —
reprobating the operose drudgery of such Sabbaths. Many years afterwards, I
mentioned this to Irving, who was then the colleague of Chalmers; and he told
me that the Deacons waited on the Doctor to remonstrate with him on the
occasion of this sermon. — H.C.Robinson, Diary, 1821. |
|
|
|
|
|
384
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. 412. In -ive, Latin -ivus. Examples: — active,
aggregative, appreciative, associative] authoritative, comparative,
conclusive, creative, distinctive, elective, exclusive, for getive Sh, imaginative,
inquisitive, inventive, legislative, passive, pensive, plaintive, positive,
reflective, reparative, repulsive, responsive, retentive, sensitive,
speculative, suggestive, superlative. crescive. Grew like the Summer Grasse,
fastest by Nighte Vnseene yet cressiue in his facultie. Shakspeare, Henry V,
i. 2. responsive. The swain responsive as the milk-maid sung. Oliver
Goldsmith, The Deserted Village. speculative. High on her speculative tower
Stood Science waiting for the hour. William Wordsworth, The Eclipse of the
Sun, 1820, aggregative, associative, creative, motive. Fancy is aggregative
and associative — Imagination is creative, motive. — John Brown, M.D., Horce
Subsecivce. distinctive. There was something so very distinctive in him,
traits and tones to make an impression to be remembered all one's life. —
John Keble, Memoir. P. 45 2 This form has been fruitful in substantives, as
alternative, detective, executive, invective, motive, narrative, palliative,
prerogative, representative, sedative. Home Tooke having obtained a seat in
the House of Commons as representative of the famous borough of Old Sarum. —
H. C. Robinson. Diary, 1801. |
|
|
|
|
|
2.
ADJECTIVES — LATIN. 385 413. In -ile, -il: Latin -His and -ilis, as
juvenilis, facilis. This quantitive distinction is not observed in English.
Examples:— civil, contractile, docile, facile, febrile, fertile, fragile,
gentile, hostile, infantile, juvenile, servile, sessile, subtil. In -ine,
-in; Latin -inus, -ineus. Examples: — canine, divine, feminine, ifiternecine,
marine, masculine, sanguine. Our pronunciation of marine is decidedly French,
and thus we are again reminded that our Latin list is not purely and
exclusively of direct Latin derival, but only prevalently so. This form has
produced some gentile adjectives; as, Florentine, Latin, Philistine. 414. In
-ary, Latin -arius. Examples: — contemporary, imaginary, military,
missionary, parliamentary, secondary, sanitary, stationary, tertiary,
visionary. petitionary. Ros. Nay, I pre' thee now, with most petitionary
vehemence, tell me who it is. — As You Like It, iii. 2. Claspt hands and that
petitionary grace Of sweet seventeen subdued me ere she spoke. Alfred
Tennyson, The Brook. parliamentary, military. The consequence was, that as
the jealousies between the Parliament and army rose up, each side appealed to
him as its especial friend, and the parliamentary Cromwell was arbitrating on
the very dissatisfactions in the army which the military Cromwell had been
fostering. — J. B. Mozley, Essays, i. 264. This form occurs frequently in its
substantival aspect: signatary. All the Powers, signataries of the Treaty of
1856. — Queens Speech, 1867. 415. In -atory, Latin -alorius. Examples: —
commendatory, criminatory, derogatory, excul c c |
|
|
|
|
|
386
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. palory, expiatory, migratory, nugatory, obligatory,
preparatory, propitiatory, respiratory, supplicatory. criminatory . And was taken
with strongly criminatory papers in his possession. Substantivate: —
lavatory, observatory. 416. In -ent, from the Latin participial terminations
-ens, -e?itis. Examples: — benevolent, dependent, efficient, eminent, fluent,
innocent, insolent, insolvent, lenient, munificent, obedient, patent,
patient, potent, prominent. Many of these are used substantively, as
expedie?it, incident, insolvent, patent, patient, precedent, student.
diluent. His rule is not Sir Roger de Coverley's, that there is much to be
said on both sides; but a rule much more diluent of all certainty, viz., that
there is no proof in any case in which there is anything to be said on the
other side. — J. B. Mozley, Essays, ii. 379: ' The Argument of Design.' 417.
The form -lent, from the Latin -lentus, must be distinguished from the
foregoing. Examples: — corpulent, esculent, feculent, flatulent, fraudulent,
opulent, somnolent, succulent, truculent, violent, virulent. Some adjectives
in -ent, with an l of the root, have a false semblance of belonging here, as
benevolent, equivalent, indolent, insolent, prevalent, malevolent. Here we
seem almost over the border of English philology, but in dealing with such a
borrowing language as ours, it is not always easy to draw the boundary line.
esculent. The Chinese present a striking contrast with ourselves in the care
which they bestow on their esculent vegetation A more general knowledge of
the properties and capabilities of esculent plants would be an important
branch of popular education. — C. D. Badham, The Esculent Funguses of
England, ed. F. Currey, p. xvi. |
|
|
|
|
|
2.
ADJECTIVES — LATIN. 387 In -ate, from the Latin participle -aius: — accurate,
compassionate, considerate, delicate, desolate, determinate, illiterate,
immediate, inordinate, mediate, moderate, obstinate, passionate, sedate,
separate, temperate. 418. In -al, Latin -alis. Examples: — accidental,
carnal, condilio?ial, diurnal, eternal, formal, habitual, influential,
inquisitorial, intellectual, intelligential M, intentional, martial, nuptial,
parental, partial, personal, prodigal, radical, sensual, suicidal, universal.
parental. That, under cover of the Phoenician name, we can trace the channels
through which the old parental East poured into the fertile soil of the Greek
mind the seeds of civilisation. — William Ewart Gladstone. Juventus Mundi, p.
129. residual. But the planetary orbits turned out to be not quite circular
after all; and grand as was the service Copernicus rendered to science,
Kepler and Newton had to come after him. What if the orbit of Darwinism
should be a little too circular? What if species should offer residual
phenomena, here and there, not explicable by natural selection? — T. H.
Huxley, Lay Sermons. Many substantives have been produced from this
adjectival form. Thus, cardinal bishop has become Cardinal, general captain
has become General, cathedral church has become Cathedral, and Confessional
is better known as a substantive than as an adjective. In like manner capital
is now better known as a substantive. For a capital city we say a Capital;
for capital letters we say Capitals; and the chapiters in architecture are
also called Capitals. So that there is a freshness, as of novelty almost,
about the reverted adjectival use: — The old traditions which invested
parents with the right to govern their children, and made Obedience the
capital virtue of childhood, have begun to disappear. — R. W. Dale, The Ten
Commandments (1872), p. 7. C C 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
388
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. A great word of the day is survival: Dr. Carpenter did
not agree with him that natural selection was a vera causa. The true cause
lay in those developmental forces which gave origin to advances of type and
varieties of form. Natural selection by producing the survival of the fittest
did nothing but limit and direct the operation of this cause. — The Guardian,
August 28, 1 87 2. In -ical, based upon French -ic. The adjectives in French
-ique and English -ic ran with unusual celerity into substantival
significations, as domestique, domestic; physique, physic; logique, logic.
Hence there was a further demand for an adjectival form which should be
unequivocal. This seems to be the account of that strain of adjectives in
-ical, which is one of the notes of the literature of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, and which has been largely discarded in recent times.
Matthew Parker dreaded the ' Germanical natures ' of those who would fain
have Zwinglianised the Church of England. 1 domestical. Dogs and such like
domestical creatures. — Richard Sibbs, Soules Conflict, ch. x. Such discarded
forms have an air of obsolete old-fashionedness about them, and it almost
excites a surprise to find that after all we have been rather arbitrary in
our discontinuance of some, while we have continued to use others whose case
is nowise different. We familiarly use archceological, ecumenical,
evangelical, logical, mathematical, mechanical, methodical, practical,
rhetorical, surgical, symmetrical, tropical, whimsical. -ar, Latin -aris: —
auricular, circular, consular, familiar, linear, molecular, orbicular,
perpendicular, polar, popular, regular, secular, singular, vulgar.
Substantivate: — scholar. 419. -an, -ian, Latin -anus, -ianus; as African,
American. 1 Strype, Parker, vol. i. p. 156. |
|
|
|
|
|
2 .
ADJECT I VES — LA TIN. 389 Christian, Darwinian, diocesan, Dominican,
Franciscan, Hibernian, Indian, Persian, Polynesian, Puritan, Roman, Russian,
Scandinavian, veteran. This form acquired its importance in the first century
of the Roman Empire. The soldiers who attached themselves to Julius Caesar in
the civil wars were called Juliani, and this grew to be the established
formula for the expression of a body of supporters or followers. The friends
of Otho were called Othoniani, those of Vitellius were Vitelliani; and in the
same period it was that ' the disciples were called Christians first at
Antioch/ Then it served for names of persons; as Appian, Cyprian, Gratian,
Hadrian, Lucian, Vatentinian. By assimilation Ossian. To this class of
legends belong the poems respecting Saint Patrick and the old warrior-poet,
Oisin, with whom the modern reader is better acquainted under the name of
Ossian. They are to this day chaunted in those parts of Ireland in which the
Gaelic language is spoken Oisin had died two centuries before Patrick's
mission. — Aubrey de Vere, Legends of Saint Patrick, 1872; Preface. An
instance of its playful use: Robinsonian. 1 2th March, 1821. My dear Friend,
— You were very good in writing to me so long a letter, and kind in your own
Robinsonian way. — William Wordsworth to H. C. Robinson, Diary. Amplified
forms are produced by the addition of this formative to -ar, -ary, whence
-arian, as latitudinarian, parliamentarian, Triiiitarian, valetudinarian,
vegetarian. Likewise to -at, making adjectives in -alian, as bacchanalian,
episcopalian. The Latin plural -alia provides an easy transition to |
|
|
|
|
|
39° VII.
THE NOUN GROUP. -ah'an, as when we render Horace's ' sesquipedalia verba' by
' sesquipedalian words.' Greek Adjectival Forms. 420. The Greek forms are
few: In -ic, from the Greek -lkos. Examples: — academic, acoustic, (Esthetic,
a?ialytic, a?iarchic, arctic, antarctic, apathetic, apologetic, archaic,
aromatic, athletic, Atlantic, ato?nic, authentic, barbaric M, cathartic,
caustic, despotic, diatonic, dramatic, dynamic, epic, ethic, gastric,
graphic, mimetic, mystic, optic, poetic, polytechnic, pragmatic, pyrotechnic,
synoptic, telegraphic, theoretic. These are roughly distinguishable from
those in -ic after the French -ique, by being entirely of Greek material.
Strictly to distinguish the two sets, there needs an historical enquiry into
each example severally. The bulk of these adjectives are shared by us with
all the great languages of Western Europe, and there is no form that more
distinctly represents the general influx of Greek into modern languages and
the importance of its contributions towards the formation of a universal
terminology. And -istic, -astic, from the Greek -io-tikt) -ao-racr).
Examples: — antagonistic, characteristic, drastic, enthusiastic , gymnastic,
patristic, pleonastic. Of Adjectival Flexion. Of Declension — that is, of
flectional variations to express Gender, Number, Case — the English adjective
has none. A few obscure instances of the adoption of the French plural
adjective, as letters patents, cannot be held to constitute an exception to
this general statement. This entire freedom of the adjective from Declension
makes one of the largest |
|
|
|
|
|
2 . A
DJECTI VES — CO MP A R I SON. 3 9 1 features of the modern as against the
ancient vernacular. In this member of our language the work of deflectionization
has been complete. The contrast with Anglosaxon is the more striking, as the
old adjective had not only all the apparatus of a declension in three
genders, but even a double set of trigeneric inflections, like that which
forms the beginner's difficulty in German. There was an Indefinite and a
Definite declension, or as they are now generally called, a Strong and a Weak
declension. Thus, in order to say ' I recognize a good man, or a good woman,
or a good thing ' — the adjective would vary three times, thus, ' Ic oncnawe
aenne godne man, ot$c5e ane gode faemne, oc5(5e an god Sing ': but if we use
the definite article and say, ' I saw the good man, and the good woman, and
the good thing' — it would be thus expressed, ' Ic geseah }?one godan man,
and }?a godan faemne, and pddt gode J?ing/ Comparison of Adjectives. 421.
Some slight traces remain of that ancient Indo-European -ma superlative,
which we see in Greek and Latin, as e/38ofios-, infimus, pri??ms, optimus,
ultimus. It is a remarkable point of agreement between Mcesogothic and
Anglosaxon, that these two, almost to the exclusion of the other dialects,
have preserved this ancient form. Some specimens of it linger on in English,
but masked under a modern guise, as if it had something to do with more and
most. |
|
|
|
|
|
392
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. 422. The system of comparison which is common to the
whole Gothic family is that in -er and -est. We English have moved on to a
third method, namely by prefixing the adverbs more and most: a method which
is also used in Swedish and Danish. This has gained immensely in modern times
upon the elder forms, insomuch that the comparison by -er and -est is rarely
used now for words of more than two syllables, and not always for these. In
early writers we meet with such long forms as ancienter, eloquenter, honour
ablest, but in our day such forms are used only for a certain rhetorical
effect that they carry with them, or for a sort of humour which they seem to
convey. cunning est. Does human nature possess any free, volitional, or truly
anthropomorphic element, or is it only the cunningest of all Nature's clocks?
— Professor Huxley, Lay Sermons, viii. In an anonymous story-book which
purports to represent life in East London, the flectional comparison of long
words is a stock feature of the characterisation. A churlish dealer in waste
paper, who is something of a reader, talks as follows: — wonderfullest. I
like travels, too, a bit, and now and then I get hold of an interesting Life,
but mostly they 're about people that nobody ever knew anything about till
they were dead, and then somebody makes 'em out to be the wonderfullest
people that ever lived. — Episodes in an Obscure Life, vol. ii. ch. viii. The
effect is still more peculiar when a participle is so treated: startleder.
And yet, if you 'II believe me, I once found a fairy story in a blue-book. If
I 'd found a fairy in it I couldn't have been startleder. — Id. ibid. |
|
|
|
|
|
COMPARISON
OF- ADJECTIVES. 393 Flexional and phrasal comparison are often played off
against each other; as delight/idlest . . . most tedious. T have here
prescribed thee, Reader, the delightfullest task to the Spirit, and the most
tedious to the Flesh, that ever men on Earth were imployed in. — R. Baxter,
Saints Rest, Introduction to Fourth Part; 1652. There are a few Anomalous
forms of comparison, and they are ancient: good better best bad worse worst
much more most little less least Cumulate comparatives, in which -er is added
to the anomalous form, appear in lesser, worser: . . . the greater light to
rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. — Genesis i. 16 (1611).
Now with a general peace the world was blest; While our's, a world divided
from the rest, A dreadful quiet felt, and worser far Than arms, a sullen
interval of war. John Dryden, Astrcea Redux (1660), init. Logical function of
the Adjective; with a remarkable consequence. 423. Having said so much on
adjectival forms, let us now consider the logical character of the adjective,
and a practical effect of that logical character upon our habitual
conversation. An adjective is plainly of the nature of a predicate, and to
select a predicate for a subject is an act of judgment. It is manifest that
judgment is more exercised in the utterance of adjectives than in that of
substantives. Nay, further, judgment is more exercised in the use of adjectives
than even in that of verbs. The verb is indeed an instrument of predication
more completely than the adjective is; but then |
|
|
|
|
|
394 VII
> THE NOUN GROUP. the verb predicates action while the adjective
predicates quality, and quality is harder to discern than action. I say horse
from mere memory of my mother-tongue, and we hardly dignify it as an act of
judgment if a man uses that word in the right place, and shews that he knows
a horse when he sees it. Nor do we call it an exercise of judgment to say
that a horse walks, trots, gallops, leaps. But to say good horse, bad horse,
sound horse, young horse, is an affair of judgment. A child knows when he
sees a garden, and we do not call it an act of judgment (except in technical
logic) to exclaim There 's a garden. But to use garden adjectively, as when a
person comes across a flower, and says it is a garden flower, this is an act
of judgment which it takes a botanist to exercise safely. This being so, a
speaker runs a greater chance of making a mistake, or of coming into
collision with the judgments of others, in the use of adjectives about
matters of general interest. Partly from the rarity of good and confident
judgment, and partly it may also be from the modesty which social intercourse
requires, we perceive this effect, that there is a shyness about the
utterance of adjectives. Of original adjectives, I mean; such as can at all
carry the air of being the speaker's own. And hence it has come about, that
there is in each period or generation, one or more chartered social
adjectives which may be used freely and safely. Such adjectives enjoy a sort
of empire for the time in which they are current. Their meaning is more or
less vague, and it is this quality that fits them for their office. But while
it would be hard to define what such an adjective meant, it is nevertheless
perfectly well understood. One of these has been a chief heir-loom from Saxon
times, and has made a figure in all stages of the national story. I suppose
that no other Saxon adjective is compar |
|
|
|
|
|
CONVENTIONALITY.
IN ADJECTIVES. 395 able for length and variety of career to the word free.
Originally meaning lordly, noble, gentle (78), it has with each change of the
national aim so changed its usage as still to take a prominent place. In the
growth of the municipal bodies the privileged members were designated
free-men; in the constitutional struggles it managed to represent the idea of
liberty; and in these latter days, when social equality is the universal
pretension, it signifies the manners thereon attendant in the modern
coupling, free and easy. The earliest sense may be seen as late as
Shakspeare: — Aia. I thanke thee, Hector: Thou art too gentle, and too free a
man. Troylus and Cressida, iv. 5. 139. Obvious examples of this sort of
privileged adjective are the merry of the ballads, and the fair and pretty of
the Elizabethan period. In Mrs. Cowden Clarke's Concordance to Shakspeare,
there are about seven hundred examples of fair, without counting its
derivatives and compounds. Perhaps this perpetual recurrence of the word made
a butt at it all the more amusing: — King. All haile sweet Madame, and faire
time of day. Qu. Faire in all Haile is fowle, as I conceiue. King. Construe
my speeches belter, if you may. Loues Labour ' 's Lost, v. 2. 340. Pan. Faire
be to you my Lord, and to all this faire company: faire desires in all faire
measure fairely guide them, especially to you faire Queene, faire thoughts be
your faire pillow. Helen. Deere Lord, you are full of faire words. Pan. You
speake your faire pleasure sweete Queene: faire Prince, here is good broken
Musicke. — Troylus and Cressida, iii. I. 46. Another adjective which has
filled a large space in the history of our language, is the adjective quaint.
This was already a great word in the transition period; it was an established
word of old standing when Chaucer wrote, and |
|
|
|
|
|
39*5
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. it still retains some vitality. In Old French it was
written coint, choini, and Diez (v. conio) derives it from the Latin 1 cognitus.'
Ducange derived it from ' comptus/ neat, trim, orderly, handsome. The
derivation of Diez is the one which best accounts for the physical
conformation of the word, just as acquaint is adcognitare. But the
correspondence of meaning draws towards comptus, and it almost seems as if
the word had derived its body from the one source and its mind from the
other. At the time of the rise of King's English in the fourteenth century,
quaint was a great social adjective denoting an indefinite compass of merit and
approbation. Whatever things were agreeable, elegant, clever, neat, trim,
gracious, pretty, amiable, taking, affable, proper, spruce, handsome, happy,
knowing, dodgy, cunning, artful, gentle, prudent, wise, discreet (and all
this is but a rough translation of Roquefort's equivalents for coint), were
included under this comprehensive word. In Chaucer, the spear of Achilles,
which can both heal and hurt, is called a ' quaint spear': — And fell in
speech of Telephus the king And of Achilles for his queinte spere, For he
coude with it both hele and dere. Canterbury Tales, 1 05 5 3. Shakspeare has
' quaint Ariel,' Tempest, i. 2; and another good instance of this earlier use
in Much Ado about Nothing, hi. 4. 20: 'But for a fine, quaint, graceful and
excellent fashion, yours is worth ten on't.' By the time we come to Spenser
it has acquired a new sense, very naturally evolved from the possession of
all the most esteemed social accomplishments; it has come to mean fastidious.
Florimell, when she has taken refuge in the hut of the witch, is fain to
accept her rude hospitalities: |
|
|
|
|
|
SOCIAL
ADJECTIVES. 397 And gan recomfort her in her rude wyse, With womanish
compassion of her plaint, Wiping the teares from her suffused eyes, And
bidding her sit downe, to rest her faint And wearie limbes awhile. She,
nothing quaint Nor 'sdeignfull of so homely fashion, Sith brought she was now
to so hard constraint, Sat downe upon the dusty ground anon: As glad of that
small rest as bird of tempest gon. The Faery Queene, ill. 7. 10. Another
stage in our national history, and we come to the period at which the word
has stuck fast ever since, and there rooted itself. We may almost say that
the word quaint now signifies 'after the fashion of the seventeenth century,'
or something to that effect. It means something that is pretty after some
bygone standard of prettyness; and if we trace back the time we shall find it
in the seventeenth century. As the memory of man is in legal doctrine
localised to the reign of Richard the Second, as 'Old English' is (or was,
before Mr. Freeman made it embrace the Anglo-Saxon period) particularly
identified with the language of the fifteenth century; so quaintness of
diction has acquired for itself a permanent place in the literature of the
seventeenth. In many respects Fuller may be considered the very type and
exemplar of that large class of religious writers of the seventeenth century
to which we emphatically apply the word 'quaint.' That word has long ceased
to mean what it once meant. By derivation, and by original usage, it first
signified ' scrupulously elegant, refined, exact, accurate,' beyond the reach
of common art. In time it came to be applied to whatever was designed to
indicate these characteristics — though excogitated with so elaborate a
subtlety as to trespass on ease and nature. In a word, it was applied to what
was ingenious and fantastic, rather than tasteful or beautiful. It is now
wholly used in this acceptation; and always implies some violation of the
taste, some deviation from what the ' natural ' requires under the given
circumstances. Now the age in which Fuller lived was the golden age of '
quaintness ' of all kinds — in gardening, in architecture, in costume, in
manners, in religion, in literature. As men improved external nature with a
perverse expenditure of money and ingenuity — made her yews and cypresses
grow into peacocks and statues, tortured and clipped her luxuriance into
monotonous uniformity, |
|
|
|
|
|
39 8
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. turned her graceful curves and spirals into straight
lines and parallelograms, compelled things incongruous to blend in artificial
union, and then measured the merits of the work, not by the absurdity of the
design, but by the difficulty of the execution, — so in literature, the
curiously and elaborately unnatural was too often the sole object. . . . The
constitution of Fuller's mind had such an affinity with the peculiarities of
the day, that what was ' quaint ' in others seems to have been his natural
element — the sort of attire in which his active and eccentric genius loved
to clothe itself. — Edinburgh Review, January, 1842: Thomas Fuller. Another
such was the adjective fate, With vessels in her hond of gold ful fine. K
night es Tale, 291 1. The truly philosophical language of my worthy and
learned friend Mr. Harris, the author of Hermes, a work that will be read and
admired as long as there is any taste for philosophy and fine writing in
Britain. — Lord Monboddo, Origin and Progress of Language, init. The
adjective elegant was another such. It is now little used: almost the only
new combination it has entered into in our day is in the dialect of the
apothecary, who speaks of an ' elegant preparation.' In the last century, and
in the early part of this century, we had Elegant Extracts, and besides
these, we had elegant in a variety of honoured positions. Scott spoke of
Goethe as ' the elegant author of The Sorrows of Werther.' In the first
sentence of Bishop Lowth's address To the King, which is prefixed to his
Isaiah, this word comes in, thus: — SIRE, An attempt to set in a just light
the writings of the most sublime and elegant of the Prophets of the Old
Testament, &c. George Home (afterwards Bishop of Norwich), towards the
close of last century published some sermons, and half apologising in his
Preface said: — This form of publication is generally supposed less
advantageous at present than any other. But it may be questioned whether the
supposition does justice to the age, when we consider only the respect which
has so recently been paid to the sermons of the learned and elegant Dr,
Blair. |
|
|
|
|
|
OFFICE-BEARING
ADJECTIVES. 399 424. But none of these ever reached a greater, if so great, a
vogue as the chartered adjective of our own and our fathers' generation,
namely, the adjective nice. Should an essayist endeavour by description to
convey the signification of this word in those peculiar social uses so
familiar to all, he would find that he had undertaken a difficult task. It
implies more or less the possession of those qualities which enjoy the
approbation of society under its present code. The word dates from the great
French period, and at first meant foolish, absurd, ridiculous; then in course
of time it came to signify whimsical, fantastic, wanton, adroit j and thence
it slid into the meaning of subtle, delicate, sensitive, which landed it on
the threshold of its modern social application. Of this we have already a
foretaste in Milton: — A nice and subtle happiness I see Thou to thyself
proposest in the choice Of thy associates. Paradise Lost, viii. 399. As far
back as 1823, a young lady objected to Sydney Smith: ' Oh, don't call me
nice, Mr. Sydney; people only say that when they can say nothing else/ This
expostulation drew forth his Definition of a Nice Person, which may be seen
in the Memoir of his Life, and which will serve to complete the case of this.
important little office-bearing adjective. Morphology of the Adjective. 425,
Let us close this section with some observations on the morphology of the
adjective, or in other words, on the divers ways it has of dressing itself up
to act its part on the stage of language. By ' adjective ' here is meant the
pure mental conception, as opposed to the form. There are three ways in which
the adjectival idea clothes itself |
|
|
|
|
|
400
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. and finds expression, which it may be convenient to call
the three adjections. i. The first, which may be called the Flat 1 , is by
collocation. Thus, brick and stone are substantives; but mere position before
another substantive turns them into adjectives, as brick house, stone wall;
and the latter, when condensed into a compound substantive, stone-wall, may
again by collocation make a new adjective, as ' Stone-wall Jackson.' Thus we
speak of garden flowers and hedge flowers'. — Near yonder copse, where once
the garden smiled, And still where many a garden flower grows wild. Oliver
Goldsmith, Deserted Village. In some instances a substantive, through long
standing in such a position, has acquired the adjectival habit exclusively.
565. Thus milch, in the expressions ' milch cow/ ' milch goat,' though now an
adjective, yet is nothing but a phonetic variety of the substantive milk,
just as church and kirk are varieties of the same word. In the German
language the current substantive oimilk has the form of our present
adjective, viz. 2Md;. Let our particular example of this adjection be elm
tree. 2. The second, which may be called the Flexional, is by modification of
form, either (a) in the way of Case, as fool's paradise, nature's music. This
is a power in poetry: |
|
|
|
|
|
401 |
|
|
402
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. The following line displays the first and third: — The
velvet scabbard held a sword of steel. H. W. Longfellow, King Robert of
Sicily. The next quotation displays the second and third: — rational . . . of
reason. Law rationall therefore, which men commonly vse to call the law of
nature, . . . may be termed most fitly the law of reason. — R. Hooker, Of the
Lawes, &c, i. 8. Cumulation of the second and third is employed in
asseveration; as ' of the earth earthy ': Now such a view of the clerical
office is of the world worldly. — Frederic Myers, Catholic Thoughts, ii. 18.
427. This analysis would not be quite idle if it were only for an observation
which it enables us to make on the relative adjectional habits of the three
languages. i. The flat adjection is peculiarly English. There is indeed a
rare and fitful use of it in French, but in German it is quite gone, having
passed into the sphere of the compounds. 2. The adjection 2 (a), unknown in
French, is common to English and German. The 2 (3) is the technical
adjective, and all this section has been occupied with it, and it is common
to the three as to all mature languages. But the German, being destitute of
the First Adjection, and little disposed to avail itself of the Third, uses
this Flexional one to an astonishing extent. Thus Jacob Grimm's Grammar is
with perfect propriety called ' die Grimmsche grammatik/ and his works are
spoken of as * die Grimmschen werke/ 3. The third adjection is imitated a
little in German and a good deal in English, but in neither to such a degree
as to obscure the fact that it was French by origin, or to interfere with its
natural heritage as a prominent |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3. OF
THE ADVERB. 403 characteristic of the French in common with the other
Romanesque languages. Such are the three ways in which we manage the expression
of the adjectival idea, the three methods of adjection, the variations in the
Morphology of the Adjective. This threefold variety of adjectives, Flat,
Flexional, and Phrasal, has a philological importance which will more clearly
be seen in the next section, where it will be made the basis of the whole
arrangement. |
|
|
|
|
|
404
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. co-ordinated as the secondary, and we now complete this
trilogy of presentives by the addition of the adverb, which is the third and
last of presentive words. Whatever material idea is imported into any
sentence must be conveyed through one of these three orders of words. All the
rest is mechanism. We assign to the adverb the third place, although we know
that it does not stand in that order in every sentence. We do so because this
is the true and natural order; for it is in this order alone that the mind
can make use of it as an adverb. Whether the adverb stand first, as in very
fine child, or in the third place as in John rides zvell, either way it is
equally third in mental order. As fine is dependent on child for its
adjectival character, so very is dependent on the. two for its adverbial
character. There is a good meaning in very if I say ' a very child/ but it is
no longer an adverbial meaning. 429. As a further illustration of the
tertiary character of the adverb, it may be noticed that it attaches only to
adjectives and verbs, that is to the two secondary words. The adverb is
further removed from the base of language, it is higher above the foundation
by which language is based in physical nature; in other words, mind is more
deeply engaged in its production than it is either in that of the substantive
or of the adjective. Accordingly the adverbs cannot be disposed of in a catalogue
such as we have made of substantives and adjectives. The power of making
adverbs is too unlimited for us to catalogue them as things already moulded
and made. The adverb is to be looked at rather as a faculty than as a
product, as a potential rather than as a material thing. Of all presentive
words, the adverb has most sympathy with the verb. Indeed, this quality is
already intimated in |
|
|
|
|
|
3.
ADVERBS — (i) FLAT. 405 the Latin name of Adverb. It is the peculiar
companion of the verb, as the adjective is of the substantive. It continues
or intensifies the mental action raised by the verb, or couched in the adjective.
And here having reached as it were the third and topmost storey of our
edifice, we leave behind us the care for raw material, and think more and
more of the arts and graces of architectural composition. We have done with
the forest and the quarry, and we are absorbed in the contemplation of the
effect. We may yet incidentally notice that an adverbial form has come from
Saxon or other national source; but our main attention will be required by a
division as truly inward to the adverbs themselves, as that which formed the
plan of the chapter on verbs. And this internal division is the more worthy
of consideration, as it is not limited to the adverbs alone, but is
correlated to the general economy and progress of language. (1) Of the Flat
Adverb. 430. The Flat Adverb is simply a substantive or an adjective placed
in an adverbial position. The same word which, if it qualified a noun, would
be called an adjective, being set to qualify an adjective or a verb is called
an adverb. The use of the unaltered adjective as an adverb has a peculiar
effect, which I know not how to describe better than by the epithet Flat.
This effect is not equally appreciable in all instances of the thing; but it
may perhaps be recognised in such an expression as wonder great, which was
common in the fourteenth century, or in the following: villainous With
foreheads villainous low. W, Shakspeare, Tempest, iv. i. 247. |
|
|
|
|
|
406
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. cormorant When spight of cormorant deuouring Time. Loues
Labour s lost, i. 1.4. The uneasy young traveller in an American car, who (as
Mr. Zincke relates) exclaimed ' Mother, fix me good/ gave us there an
excellent example of this original adverb of nature. Although this adverbial
use of good is not admitted in literary English, the analogous use of gut is
polite German. Indeed, the flat adverb is much more extensively used in
German than in English, as fcfyreiben <Sie Icunjfam, write slowly. We do
also hear in English write slow, but it is rather rustic. In Jeremiah xlix. 8
there is a German example: ' Flee ye, turne backe, dwell deepe, O inhabitants
of Dedan,' where the flat adverb deep is an imitation from Luther: gflietyet,
wenbet eud) unb fcerfriccfyet eucfy ttef, it;r SBurger gu 2)eban. 431. Our
English instances of this most primitive form of adverb will mostly be found
in the colloquial and familiar specimens of language. In such homely
phraseology as walk fast, walk slow; speak loud, speak low; tell vie true; or
again in this, yes, sure — we have examples of the flat adverb. They are
frequent in our early classics, and they are cherished by our modern poets.
But the precise grammar-book does not allow them. Instead of just and right,
as in the following passage from Shakspeare, we should now be directed to say
' exactly ' or ' precisely': At this fusty stuffe The large Achilles (on his
prest-bed lolling) From his deepe Chest, laughes out a lowd applause, Cries
excellent, 'tis Agamemnon hist. Now play me Nestor; hum, and stroke thy Beard
As he, being drest to some Oration: |
|
|
|
|
|
3.
ADVERBS — (i) FLAT. 407 That 's done, as neere as the extreamest ends Of
paralels; as like, as Vulcan and his wife, Yet god Achilles still cries excellent,
'Tis Nestor right. Troylus and Cressida, i. 3. 161. clean. Suffre yet a litle
whyle, & y e vngodly shal be clene gone: thou shalt loke after his place,
& he shal be awaye. — Psalm xxxvii. 10. Miles Coverdale, 1535. brisk. He
cherups brisk his ear-erecting steed. William Cowper, The Task, Book III.
strong. Yet these each other's power so strong contest, That either seems
destructive of the rest. Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller. pretty. I don't
mean to hurt you, you poor little thing, And pussy-cat is not behind me; So
hop about pretty, and put down your wing, And pick up the crumbs, and don't
mind me. Nursery Rhyme. quick. With eager spring the troutlets rise To seize
the fair delusive prize; And quick the little victims pay The penalty of
being gay. E. W. L. Da vies, Dartmoor Days, p. 81. slow . . . best. While the
bell is cooling slow May the workman rest: Each, as birds through bushes go,
Do what likes him best. H. D. Skrine, Schiller's Song of the Bell,
extraordinary. We had an extraordinary good run with the Tiverton hounds
yesterday. — Land and Water, January 15, 1S70. |
|
|
|
|
|
40 8
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. Of these our short and homely adverbs there are some few
which did not always belong to this group, but have lapsed into it from the
flexional group. Such are ill, still, which in Saxon are oblique cases, ille,
stille (disyllabic). To this group belongs a word, provincial indeed, but prevailing
through the eastern half of the island from Norfolk to Northumberland, namely
the adverb geyn, German gegen, meaning near, handy, convenient. Its use
appears in the following dialogue taken from life: — Where 's the baby's bib,
Lavina? On the chair, m'm. I don't see it anywhere here. Well'm; I 'm sure I
laid it geyn! 432. As a general remark on this section we would say, that
perhaps there is no part of the language that more plainly forces on us the
need of looking beyond the pale of literature and precise grammar, if we are
to comprehend the Philology of the English Tongue. Within grammatical liberty
we could muster but a very poor account of the flat adverb, and so the whole
German adverb would seem to be without a parallel in English. The flat adverb
is in fact rustic and poetic, and both for the same reason — namely, because
it is archaic. Out of poetry it is for the most part an archaism, but it must
not therefore be set down as a rare, or exceptional, or capricious mode of
expression. If judgment went by numbers, this would in fact be entitled to
the name of the English Adverb. To the bulk of the community the adverb in
-fy is bookish, and is almost as unused as if it were French. The flat adverb
is all but universal with the illiterate. But among literary persons it is
hardly used (a few phrases excepted), unless with a humorous intention. This
will be made plain by an instance of the use of the flat adverb |
|
|
|
|
|
3.
ADVERBS — (2) FLEX10NAL. 409 in correspondence. Charles Lamb, writing to H.
C. Robinson, says: — Farewell! till we can all meet comfortable. — H. C. Robinson,
Diary, 1S27. 433. This flat and simple adverb suffices for primitive needs,
but it soon fails to satisfy the demands of a progressive civilisation. For
an example of the kind of need that would arise for something more highly
organised, we may resort to that frequent unriddler of philological problems,
the Hebrew language. In Exodus xvi. 5 we read, ' It shall be twice as much as
they gather dayly.' Instead of dayly the Hebrew has day day, that is, a flat
adverb day repeated in order to produce the effect of our daily or day by
day. This affords us a glimpse of the sort of ancient contrivance which was
the substitute of flexion before flexion existed, and out of which flexion
took its rise. But for a purely English bridge to the next division we may produce
one of the frequent instances in which a flat adverb is coupled with a
flexional one, as when the Commons, on the 1 8th of November, 1558, responded
to the Chancellor's announcement with the memorable cry: ' God save queen
Elizabeth; long and happily may she reign/ The following line wins some of
its effect from this adverbial variation: — Who sings so loudly and who sings
so long. Alexander Pope, The Dunciad, Bk. III. (2) Of the Flexional Adverb.
434. When the flexional system of language had become established, and the
nouns were declined Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Ablative — a new and
effectual way of applying a noun adverbially was by adding it to the sentence
in its |
|
|
|
|
|
41 VII.
THE NOUN GROUP. genitive or ablative or instrumental case. As this was the
usual way of making adverbs in Greek and Latin, so also in Saxon. Of these we
have little left to shew. Genitival adverbs are now antiquated, and a certain
obscurity rests even on those which remain in use. We will begin with one
that savours strongly of antiquity, and which will hardly be found after
Ghaucer, viz. his thonkes, in the sense of willingly, or with his consent:
Ful soth is seyde, that love ne lordschipe Wol not his thonkes, have no
felaschipe. The Knightes Tale, 768. We have in familiar and homely use the
genitives mornings and evenings , but we have nothing to match the German
rmttagS. 435. Other instances of the genitival adverb are eastwards,
eggelinges = edgewise Chevelere Assigne 305, homewards, needs, northwards,
southwards, upwards, westwards. needs. Sen bou hast lerned by be sentence of
plato bat nedes the wordes moten ben conceyued to bo fringes of whiche bei
speken.— Boethius (Early English Text Society), p. 106. Translation. — Since
thou hast learned by the sentetice of Plato that the words must needs be
conceived (fittingly) to the things of which they speak. Of the flexional
adverbs formed from case-endings, this genitival is the one which retains
most vitality, but it is little more than semi-animate. What vitality it has,
tends not towards assimilation of fresh material, but towards svmbolism. Many
presentive instances have died out. There was an old genitival adverb days,
for which we must now say 'by day' or 'in the day time.' In Gothic, yesterday
is represented by a genitival adverb, gistradagis, Matthew vi. 30. In
Shakspeare, Troylus and Cressida, iv. 5. 12, ' 'tis |
|
|
|
|
|
3.
ADVERBS — (2) FLEXIONAL. 41 I but early dayes/ the old genitive appears with
something of adverbial effect. 436. Here I would range the adverbs in -ing or
-ling, as darkling, flailing, groveling: groveling = x a ^C € Like as the
sacred Oxe that carelesse stands, With gilden homes and flowry girlonds
crownd, Proud of his dying honor and deare bandes, Whiles th' altars fume
with frankincense arownd, All suddeinly, with mortall stroke astownd, Doth
groveling fall, and with his streaming gore Distaines the pillours and the
holy grownd, And the faire flowres that decked him afore: So fell proud
Marinall upon the pretious shore. The Faery Qaeene, iii. 4. 17. darkling.
Then feed on Thoughts, that voluntary move Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful
Bird Sings darkling, and in shadiest Covert hid Tunes her Nocturnal note.
John Milton, Paradise Lost, iii. 39. 437. The Dative formation is well
preserved in the oldfashioned adverb whilom or whilome: — It fortuned, (as
fayre it then befell) Behynd his backe, unweeting where he stood, Of auncient
time there was a springing Well, From which fast trickled forth a silver
flood, Full of great vertues, and for med'cine good: Whylome, before that
cursed Dragon got That happy land, and all with innocent blood Defyld those
sacred waves, it rightly hot 1 The Well of Life; ne yet his vertues had
forgot. The Faery Queene, i. II. 29. The dative and ablative plural of nouns
in Saxon was in -I'M, as hwile, while, time; hwilum, at whiles, at times.
This |
|
|
|
|
|
412 VII.
THE NOUN GROUP. is the form which we retain in whilom, whilome. As this can
only be illustrated from the elder form of our speech, we will quote one of
the proverbs of our Saxon ancestors: ' Wea biS wundrum clibbor,' that is, Woe
is wonderfully clinging. Here the idea of wonderfully is expressed by the
oblique plural of the noun wonder, and wundrum signifies literally with
wonders. To this place we must assign also often and seldom, as if oft-um and
seld-um. The simple seld is found in Chaucer and Shakspeare: Selde is the
Friday all the weke ylike. Canterbury Tales, 1541. i. e. Rarely is the Friday
like the rest of the week. Aia. If I might in entreaties finde successe, As
seld I haue the chance; — W. Shakspeare, Troylus and Cressida, iv. 5. 150.
Historically the adverbs in -meal are datives, though they have now lost
their case-ending. In Saxon they end in -m^lum, as sticcem^elum, '
stitchmeal/ or stitch by stitch, meaning piece-meal; German (stucf piece.
Chaucer has stoiindemele, meaning from hour to hour, or from one moment to
another; German (stunfce hour. And hardilv> this wind that more and more
Thus stoiindemele encreseth in my face. G. Chaucer, Troilus and Creseide, Bk.
V. 674. Which has been thus modernized by Wordsworth: And certainly this wind,
that more and more By moments thus increaseth in my face. flochnet. Only that
point his peple bare so sore, That flockmel on a day to him they went. The
Clerkes Tale, init. |
|
|
|
|
|
3.
ADVERBS — (2) FLEXION AL. 413 I i nib-meal. Tear her limb-meal. W.
Shakspeare, Cymbeline, ii. 4. piecemeal. Doubt not, go forward; if thou
doubt, the beasts Will tear thee piecemeal. Alfred Tennyson, The Holy Grail. 438.
Accusative formation occurs in that which has the greatest adverbial vogue,
namely the termination -ly; as, I gave him sixpence willingly. In modern
English the adverbial -ly is identical in form with the adjective -ly, but in
Saxon the forms differed, the adjectival being -Lie and the adverbial -lice;
by a difference which constantly signalised the adverbs in Anglo-Saxon. This
-e was the sign of an old accusative neuter, as in Latin we have the adverb
midtum. When we consider how much has been absorbed in this adverbial
termination, we can understand why the last syllable of the adverb in -ly was
pronounced so full and longdown to the sixteenth centurv; as the folio win
<r shews: — ■ Ye ought to be ashamed,
Against me to be gramed; And can tell no cause why, But that I wryte truly e.
Skelton, Colyn Clout. At the very opening of The Canterbury Tales the
importance of this remark is apparent; for, without attention to it, we cannot catch the rhythm
of the fifteenth line of the Prologue: And specially | from euery shires
ende. When this adverbial -ly was sometimes superadded to the adjectival, the
latter shrank into tonelessness, as comelely in Chaucer, Blaunche 848. |
|
|
|
|
|
4H VII.
THE NOUN GROUP. 439. This adverbial form has become so exceedingly prevalent
above all others, as to eclipse them and cause them to be almost forgotten:
and withal, the great dominance of this form as an adverb has cast a shadow
over the adjective of the same form. Sometimes the two functions come into an
uncomfortable collision with one another; as, ' Their ungodly deeds which
they have ungodly committed,' where the first ungodly is an adjective and the
second an adverb. As a general rule it is better to keep these two functions
well apart, and not to say, for instance, of the father of Goethe, that he
was * passionately orderly.' 440. What was said in the last section about
social adjectives, applies also to adverbs, though in a more superficial way.
Adverbs do not root themselves so firmly as adjectives do. In the last
century a frequent adverb was vastly: thus, in Mansfield Park, when Edward was
resolute that ' Fanny must have a horse,' we read: — Mrs. Norris could not
help thinking that some steady old thing might be found among the numbers
belonging to the Park, that would do vastly well. At the present moment it
may be said that awfully is the adverb regnant. ' How do?' ' Awfully jolly,
thanks/ 441. In chiefly and verily a French base has received a Saxon
formative. These adverbs are memorials of the bi-lingual period of our
language. Verily is our substitute for the French vraimenl, Italian veramenle,
Latin, or rather Roman, vera mente. It is curious to observe that the
Romanesque languages should have taken the word for Mind as the material out
of which they have moulded a formula for the adverbial idea; while the Saxon
equivalent has grown out of the word for Body; lic being body, German Seidj. |
|
|
|
|
|
3.
ADVERBS— (2) FLEXIONAL. 435 chiefly. Only a sweet and virtuous soul, Like seasoned
timber, never gives; But though the whole world turn to cole, Then chiefly
lives. George Herbert. 442. Before we pass from this, one of the most
dominant forms of our language, we may glance for a moment at the feeling and
moral effects with which it is associated. As the substantive is the most
necessary of words, so the adverb is naturally the most decorative and
distinguishing. And as it is easiest to err in that part of your fabric which
is least necessary, so a writer's skill or his incapacity comes out more in
his adverbs than in his substantives or adjectives. It is no small matter in
composition to make your adverbs appear as if they belonged to the statement,
and not as mere arbitrary appendages. Hardly anything in speech gives greater
satisfaction than when the right adverb is put in the right place. Dickens,
describing the conversation of two men at a funeral as they discuss the fate
or prospects of various neighbours, past and present, says, with one of his
happiest touches, that they spoke as if they themselves were 4 notoriously
immortal.' How happy is this ' notoriously'! how delicately does it expose
that inveterate paradox of self-delusion whereby men tacitly assume for
themselves an exception from the operation of general laws! How widely does
this differ from the common tendency to be profuse in adverbs, which is a
manifestation of the impotent desire to be effective at little cost. The
following is not a strong example, but it will indicate what is meant: — Most
heartily do I recommend Mr. Beecher's sermons . . . they are instructively
and popularly philosophical, without being distractingly metaphysical. |
|
|
|
|
|
4l6
VII. THE NOUN GROUP, 443. As in art the further an artist goes in
embellishment the more he risks a miscarriage in effect, so it is in
language. It is only the master's hand that can safely venture to lay on the
adverbs thick. And yet their full capability only then comes out when they
are employed with something like prodigality. When there is a well-ballasted
paragraph, solid in matter and earnest in manner, then, like the full sail of
a well-found ship, the adverbs may be crowded with glad effect. In the
following passage how free from adverbs is the body of the paragraph; and
when we come to where they are lavishly displayed at the end, we feel that
the demonstration is justified. If we quoted only the termination of this
passage, the adverbs would lose their raison d'etre. I believe the first test
of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean by humility, doubt of his
own power, or hesitation in speaking his opinions; but a right understanding
of the relation between what he can do and say, and the rest of the world's
sayings and doings. All great men not only know their business, but usually
know that they know it; and are not only right in their main opinions, but
they usually know that they are right in them; only, they do not think much
of themselves on that account. Arnolfo knows he can build a good dome at
Florence; Albert Diirer writes calmly to one who had found fault with his
work, ' It cannot be better done'; Sir Isaac Newton knows that he has worked
out a problem or two that would have puzzled anybody else; — only they do not
expect their fellow-men therefore to fall down and worship them; they have a
curious under-sense of powerlessness, feeling that the greatness is not in
them, but through them; that they could not do or be anything else than God
made them. And they see something divine and God-made in every other man they
meet, and are endlessly, foolishly, incredibly merciful. — John Ruskin,
Modern Paifiters, Part IV. c. xvi. § 24. The author of Friends in Council,
describing, and at the same time illustrating, what a weighty sentence should
be, though he says nothing about the distribution of the adverbs, has
nevertheless determined that point in the most effectual manner by his
example: — Sir Arthur. Pray lay down the lines for us, Ellesmere . . . Pray
tell us what a weighty sentence should be. |
|
|
|
|
|
3.
ADVERBS — (3) PHRASAL. 4IJ Ellesmere. It should be powerful in its
substantives, choice and discreet in its adjectives, nicely correct in its
verbs: not a word that could be added, nor one which the most fastidious
would venture to suppress: in order lucid, in sequence logical, in method
perspicuous; and yet with a pleasant and inviting intricacy which disappears
as you advance in the sentence: the language, throughout, not quaint, not
obsolete, not common, and not new: its several clauses justly proportioned
and carefully balanced, so that it moves like a well-disciplined army
organised for conquest: the rhythm, not that ol music, but of a higher and more
fantastic melodiousness, submitting to no rule, incapable of being taught:
the substance and the form alike disclosing a happy union of the soul of the
author to the subject of his thought, having, therefore, individuality
without personal predominance: and withal there must be a sense of felicity
about it, declaring it to be the product of a happy moment, so that you feel
it will not happen again to that man who writes the sentence, or to any other
of the sons of men, to say the like thing so choicely, tersely,
mellifluously, and completely. — Realmah, ch. vii. 444. Unless thus used,
with skill and discretion, the reiteration of the formal adverb is apt to
generate fulsomeness. Ordinarily it will not bear a very heavy charge; and
when the weightiest demonstrations of this kind have to be made, it is found
by experience that the requisite display of adverbiality is accomplished with
another sort of instrument. As a bridge from this section to the next, the
variation ' not grudgingly or of necessity/ 2 Cor. ix. 7, will do very well.
Or the following line from The Man of Laives Tale, where, be it said in
passing, the first word consists of four syllables: — Solempnely with euery
circumstance. Instances of this kind are very frequent, in which an adverb of
the formal kind is coupled with one of the phrasal, to the consideration of
which we now proceed. (3) Of rt ie Phrasal Adverb. 445. The Phrasal Adverb is
already considerably developed, and it is still in course of development; but
it attracts the less attention because the thing is going on under our eyes.
As the general progress of language e e |
|
|
|
|
|
41 8
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. involves the decay of flexion and the substitution of
symbolic words in its place, so this alteration befalls particular groups of
words more or less, in proportion as their functions are linked with
flectional terminations. When Adverbs got them Case-endings, they incurred the
liability of being translated into Phrases. A flectional word is a phrase in
the bud. The sense of the termination can be expressed by a preposition, and
so the inflected word can be turned into a Phrase. The adverbs have shewn
themselves apt to take advantage of this chance of enlargement; and it is
with them perhaps more than with any other Part of Speech, that the
difference lodges which is sometimes expressed by the terms Synthetic and
Analytic. In philology these terms mean as much as Compact and Detached, so
that flectional languages are called Synthetic and deflectionized languages
are said to be Analytic. This expansion of language seems to call for a
corresponding enlargement in the sense of the term Adverb. If willingly is an
adverb in the sentence ' I gave him sixpence willingly/ then what am I to
call the phrase 1 with a good will,' if I thus express myself, ' I gave him
sixpence with a good will '? In its relation to the mind this phrase occupies
precisely the same place as that word; and if a different name must be given
on account of form only, our terminology will need indefinite enlargement
while it represents only superficial distinctions. I would call them both
adverbs, distinguishing them as Flexional and Phrasal. Often we see that we are
obliged to translate a flexional Greek adverb by a phrasal English one; thus
— iraihioBtv, Mark ix. 21, of a child; akijdas, fohn vii. 40, of a truth;
6fj.odviJ.ab6v, Acts ii. 1, with one accord; direpLo-ndo-Tas, 1 Cor. vii. 35,
without distraction; dfiiaXeiTn-ws, 1 Thess. v. 17, without ceasing. |
|
|
|
|
|
3.
ADVERBS — (3) PHRASAL. 419 446. Genitival adverbs having ceased to grow in
the language, their place is supplied by the formation of phrasal adverbs with
the symbol of; as, of a truth, of necessity •, of old. And all be vernal
rapture as of old. Christian Year, Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity. In the
modern action of the language prepositions have generally taken the place of
oblique cases, and the symbol of has taken the place of the genitival
flexion. Instead of evenings and mornings (434) we may say of an evening, of
a morning. All indeed have not time for much reading; but every one who
wishes it, may at least manage to read a verse or two, when he comes home of
an evening, and of a morning before going to work. — Augustus William Hare,
Sermons to a Country Congregation, ' Use the Bible.' 447. In like manner by
supplies the place of the old instrumental case -um. The adverbs in -meal
were, as above stated, old datives, and hence they long continued, and some
few still continue to stand alone, without the aid of a preposition. But in
the following quotation the preposition compensates for the obsoleteness of
the termination. In the Book of Curlesye, of the fifteenth century, the 1
childe' is advised to read the writings of Gower and Chaucer and Occleve, and
above all those of the immortal Lydgate; for eloquence has been exhausted by
these; and it remains for their followers to get it only by imitation and
extracting — by canlelmele, by scraps, extracts, quotations: — There can no
man ther fames now disteyne: Thanbawmede toung and aureate sentence, Men
gette hit nowe by cantelmele, and gleyne Here and there with besy diligence,
And fayne wold riche the crafte of eloquence; But be the glaynes is hit often
sene, In whois feldis they glayned and have bene. Oriel MS., E. E. T. S.,
Extra Series, iii. Ee 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
420
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. 448. When we consider the greater range of prepositions
as compared with case-endings, we see that this phrasal stage of the adverb
makes a great enlargement of the faculties of the language; and the more so
as the rudimentary forms are often retained for optional use even after the
more explicit have developed themselves. So numerous are the adverbial
phrases that we cannot attempt a full list of them; the following examples
will remind the student of a vast number that are unmentioned: — at best, at
intervals, at large, at least, at length, at most, at random, at worst; in
earnest, in fact, in good faith, in jest, in truth, in vain, in section; by
chance, by turns, by all means, by the way. at last. So that one may scratch
a thought half a dozen times, and get nothing at last but a faint sputter. —
James Russell Lowell, Fireside Travels, 1864, P- 163. in jest. We will not
touch upon him ev'n in jest. Alfred Tennyson, Enid. with confidence, with
consternation, with disorder. After a skirmish in the narrow passage,
occasioned by the footman's opening the door of the dismal dining-room with
confidence, finding some one there with consternation, and backing on the
visitor with disorder, the visitor was shut up, pending his announcement, in
a close back parlour. — Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, ch. 10. without
effort and without thought. When I contemplate natural knowledge squandering
such gifts among men, the only appropriate comparison I can find for her is,
to liken her to such a peasant woman as one sees in the Alps, striding ever
upward, heavily burdened, and with mind only bent on her home; but yet,
without effort and without thought, knitting for her children. — T. H.
Huxley, Lay Sermons. Phrasal Adverbs combine cumulatively with the elder
forms, and often with a forcible result. With the flexional, as ' in an
instant suddenly.' With the flat, as |
|
|
|
|
|
3.
ADVERBS — (3) PHRASAL. 42 1 sudden in a minute. Let no man think that sudden
in a minute All is accomplished and the work is done; — ■
Though with thine earliest dawn thou shouldst begin it, Scarce were it ended
in thy setting sun. Frederick W. H. Myers, St. Paul. 449. A phrasal adverb which has coalesced
into one vocable, is that which is formed with the a-prefix, as abed, afar,
afield, afoot, agog, along, aloud, apiece, aright, awork. In our earlier
printed literature, and down to the close of the sixteenth century, this
adverb is printed in two vocables, as a good (270): a right. Therefore he was
a prickasoure a right. G. Chaucer, Prologue, 189. They turne them selues, but
not a right, & are become as a broken bowe. — Miles Coverdale, Hosea vii.
16. a laughter. And therewithal a laughter out he brast. G. Chaucer, The
Court of Love, ad finem. a forlorn. And forc'd to Hue in Scotland a Forlorne.
W. Shakspeare, 3 Henry VI, iii. 3. 26. So likewise a high in Richard III, iv.
4. 86; a bed in Henry V, iv. 3. 64. I derive this a not exclusively, but for
the most part, from the French preposition a; thus afoot represents a pied.
The phrase o'clock was originally of this form a clocke. In Shakspeare (1623)
we find d clocke indeed, and of clocke, and of the clocke. But these are
exceptional, and the prevailing form is a clocke 1: 1 So likewise in Robinson
Crusoe, according to the early editions, it is a clock, as may be seen in Mr.
Clark's text, pp. 72, 77. |
|
|
|
|
|
422
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. Ros. I pray you, what is't a clocke? Orl. You should aske
me what time o' day: there's no clocke in the Forrest. — As You Like It, iii.
2. 450. Another form of the phrasal adverb is where a noun is repeated with a
preposition to each, or one preposition between the two, as day by day,
bridge by bridge, from hour io hour, wave after wave. Not to be crost, save
that some ancient king Had built a way, where, link'd with many a bridge, A
thousand piers ran into the great Sea, And Galahad fled along them bridge by
bridge. Alfred Tennyson, The Holy Grail. 451. Room enough must be given to
the term Adverb to let it take in all that appertains to the description of
the condition and circumstances attendant upon the verbal predication of the
sentence. If I say, ' I gave him sixpence, with a good will/ and if the phrase
' with a good will ' is admitted to a place among adverbs, then there is no
reason to exclude any circumstantial adjunct, such as, with a green purse, or
without any purse to keep it in. If any one objects to this as too vague a
relaxation of our terminology, I would propose that for such extended
phraseological adverbs we adopt the title of Adverbiation. Such a term would
furnish an appropriate description for the relative position of a very
important element in modern diction. At the close of the following quotation
we see a couple of phrases linked together, which would come under this
designation: — I had a very gracious reception from the Queen and the Prince
Consort, and a large party of distinguished visitors. The affability and
grace of these exalted personages made a deep impression on me. It might be
copied by some of our grocers and muffin-bakers to their great improvement,
and to the comfort of others surrounding them. — The Public Life of W. F.
Wallett, the Queen's Jester, 1870. 452. If the study of grammar is ever to
grapple with the facts of language, one of two things must take place: either |
|
|
|
|
|
3.
ADVERBS — (3) PHRASAL. 423 we must make a great addition to the terminology,
or we must invest the present terms with a more comprehensive meaning. If the
ancient terms of grammar were the result of mature and philosophical thought,
and if they at all reflected those mental phases which must necessarily
underlie all highly organized speech, then they will naturally and without
suffering any violence bear continual extension, so as still to cover the
phenomena of language under the greatly altered conditions of its modern
development. A multiplication of terms is not in itself a desirable thing in
any method; and least of all in one that holds a prominent place in
educational studies. One of the best tests of the soundness of a system
hinges on this — Whether it will explain new facts without providing itself
with new definitions and new categories. The multiplication of names and
classes and groups is for the most part not an explanation at all, but only
an evasion of the difficulty which has to be explained. We have, then,
explained a new phenomenon, when we have shewn that it naturally belongs to
or branches out of some part of the old and familiar doctrine. As therefore
it is the condemnation of any system that it should be frequently resorting
to new devices, so it is the greatest recommendation when it appears to be
ever stretching out the hand of welcome to admit and assign a niche to each
newly observed phenomenon. These remarks are suggested by the stage at which
we are now arrived in our delineation of the phrasal adverb. For here we
perceive that an opportunity offers itself to explain philologically one of
the most peculiar of the phenomena of the English language. That which we
call the English infinitive verb, such as to live, to die, is quite a modern
thing, and is characteristic of English as opposed to Saxon. The question, in
presence of such a new phenomenon, is natur |
|
|
|
|
|
424
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. ally raised, — Whence this form of the infinitive verb?
We did not borrow it, for it is not French nor Latin; we did not inherit it,
for it is not Saxon. How did it rise, and what gave occasion to it? 453. This
question is one that enters into the very interior growth of language, and
one that will supply the student of English with an aim for his observations
in perusing our earlier literature. I have indeed my own answer ready; but I
wish it distinctly to be understood that it is to the question rather than to
the answer that I direct attention, and that in propounding this and other
problems for his solution, I consider myself to be rendering him the best
philological service in my power. My answer is, that it first existed as a
phrasal adverb; that it was a method of attaching one verb to another in an
adverbial manner, and that in process of time it detached itself and assumed
an independent position. As the fruit of the pine-apple is not the
termination of a branch, forasmuch as the plant continues to push itself
forward through the fruit and beyond it, so it is with language. The sentence
is the mature product of language, but not a terminal or final one, since,
out of the extremity of sentences there shoot forth germs for the propagation
of new phrases and the projection of new forms of speech. In the Saxon
Chronicle of Peterborough, anno 1085, we read: ' Hit is sceame to tellanne,
ac hit ne thuhte him nan sceame to donne' — ' It is a shame to tell, but it
seemed not to him any shame to do.' The Saxon infinitives of the verbs do and
tell were don and tellan; but here these infinitives are treated as
substantives, and put in the oblique case with the preposition to, by means
of which these verbs are attached adverbially to their respective sentences,
which are complete sentences already without these adjuncts. We must |
|
|
|
|
|
3.
ADVERBS — (3) PHRASAL. 425 not confuse this case with the modern construction
' to speak of it is shameful,' where the verb is now detached and formed into
the modern infinitive, and put as the subject of the sentence. These verbs to
tellanne and to doxne I call phrasal adverbs; even as in the modern sentence,
' He has three shillings a week to live on/ I call to live on a phrasal
adverb. 454. In modern English this adverbial use is eclipsed to our eyes by
the far greater frequency of the substantival or infinitive use; but still it
is not hard to find instances of the former, and there are two in the close
of the following paragraph. Mr. Sargent, pleading for colonies and
emigration, says: — We are told also that those who go are the best, the
backbone of the nation; that the resolute and enterprising go abroad, leaving
the timid and apathetic at home. This is not the whole truth. ... In one
sense these are our best men: they are the best to go, not the best to stay.
— Essays by Members of the Birmingham Speculative Club, p. 26. 455. As in
French the phrase a fair e, occurring often in such connection as quelque
chose a /aire, beaucoup a /aire, something to do, a great deal to do, became
at length one vocable, and that a substantive affaire, English affair, so
likewise in provincial English did to-do become a substantive, as in the
Devonshire exclamation, ' Here's a pretty to-do!' In place of this to-do the
King's English accepted a composition, part French, part English, and hence
the substantive ado. If it be admitted that affair and ado are now separate
substantives formed from an adverbial phrase, the strangeness of supposing a
like origin for our formal English infinitive is much lessened. The above
explanation may be confirmed or corrected by the young philologer; only he
should consider in what way the infinitives may appear to have been formed in
other languages. It might be worth while to trace the origin of |
|
|
|
|
|
426
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. the Danish infinitive, which like ours is phrasal (9); he
should also cast a glance at the flexional infinitives of the Greek and
Latin, and see what sort of an account has been rendered of these by the
Sanskrit scholars l . By way of reflection upon this trilogy of adverbs, be
it observed, that the subtleness of their utility lies not merely in the
choice of three forms for the fitness of every occasion, though that is a
great- advantage; but still more in the power of adverbial variation which
they render possible. The repetition of one cast of adverb is liable to
become monotonous, and accordingly when adverbs press for admission more than
one at a time, it is well to provide them each with a several garb. In the
following comparison between French and English, see how great a difference
this makes. In Micah vii. 3 we read (161 1) 'That they may doe euil with both
hands earnestly'; but if we look at the Rochelle Bible (16 16), we find,
'Pour faire mal a deux mains a bon escient,' with adverbial monotony; whereas
the English wins a certain force by varying the cast of the adverb. § The
Numerals. 456. The numerals make a little noun-group by themselves, and are
(like the chief noun-group) distinguished by the threefold character of
substantive, adjective, and adverb. The distinction between substantive and
adjective is not indeed so sharp here as in other presentive words. It is
however plain that the Cardinals when used arithmetically are substantives,
as in two and two make four. The Cardinal has also this aspect when any
person or thing is designated as number one, number two, &c, the 1
Consult F. Max Miiller Chips, iv. 33. |
|
|
|
|
|
§ THE
NUMERALS. 427 word ' number ' being in the nature of a mere prefix, as is
felt when we look at the oblique -cased Latin word which the French use in
this connection. 'En Angleterre,' said a cynical Dutch diplomatist, ' numero
deux va chez numero un, pour s'en glorifier aupres de numero trois.' —
Laurence Oliphant. Piccadilly, Part v. Moreover, when the numeral takes a
plural form, it must be regarded as a substantive, e. g. There are hundreds
of genuine letters of Mary Queen of Scots still extant. — John Hosack, Mary
Queen of Scots and her Accusers, p. 198. There is in some languages an
abstract substantive which is formed upon Cardinals, and it has a peculiar
utility in expressing the more conventional quantities or Round numbers. Thus
in French there is huitaine, a quantity of eight, which is only used in
talking of the hint jours, ' eight days ' of the week. So they have their
dixaine, douzaine, quinzaine, vingiaine, trentai'ne, quarantaine,
cinquantaine ', soixaniaine, centaine. Of all this we have nothing. Only we
have borrowed their word for a tale of twelve, and have anglicised it into
dozen. Then we have a native substitute for vingiaine, not originally a
numeral at all, but a word that practically fills the place of one. This is
the word score, an elongate form of scar, meaning a notch on the rind of a
stick or some such ledger. Our special use of this word seems to indicate
that in the rude reckoning of our ancestors a larger notch was made at every
twenty. 457. When used numerically, as two stars, three graces, four seas,
five senses, then the numerals are assimilated to adjectives. But while we
trace in the functions of the numeral a broad and general resemblance to the
distinctions which mark the nounal group, we should just notice that there is |
|
|
|
|
|
428
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. not in thought the same adjectival character in the
numeral as there is in the nounal group. If I say bright stars, fabled
graces, uncertain seas, receptive senses, these adjectives have the same
relation to their substantives, whether those substantives be taken in the
plural or in the singular. Whereas the numerals two, three, four, five,
belong to their substantives only conjointly and not severally. It may have
been a dim sense of this difference that caused the vacillation which has
appeared in language about the adjectival declension of numerals. In Saxon
the first three numerals were declined. Thus, preora is genitive of preo: '
pis is J^aera f?reora hida land gemaere ' — ' This is the landmeer of the
three hides.' (a.d. 749.) 458. This group is exceedingly retentive of
antiquity. Not only is there a radical identity in the numerals throughout
the Gothic family, but these again are identical with the numerals of other
families of languages. This indicates a very high antiquity. We may
illustrate this fact by comparative tables. First, we will compare the
different forms assumed by the numerals in some of the chief branches of our
own Gothic family, and then we will pass beyond that limit and take into our
comparison some of the most illustrious languages of the Indo-European stock. |
|
|
|
|
(delwedd E6436b) (tudalen 429) |
X |
|
|
|
|
|
VII.
THE NOUN GROUP459. In consequence of the luxuriant declension of the numerals
in Sanskrit, I have followed the authority of Bopp's Grammar for the ' theme'
in each case; that is to say, the part of the word which is present or
implied in each of the various forms under which it appears in
literature.Sanskrit. Greek. Latin. Lithuanian. Welsh. eka hen un wien un dva
du du du dau tri tri tri tri tri chatur tessar quatuor kettur pedwar panchan
pente quinque penki pump shash hex sex szeszi chwech saptan hepla septem
septyni saith ashtan okto octo asztuni wyth navan ennea novem dewyni naw
dasan 1 deka decern deszimt deg ekadasan herideka undecim weno-lika 2 unarddeg
dvadasan dodeka duodecim dwy-lika deuddeg trayodasan triskaideka tredecim
try-lika triarddeg chaturdasan tessareskaideka quatuordecim keturo-lika
pedwararddeg pancadasan pentekaideka quindecim .... pymtheg shodasan
hekkaideka sedecim .... unarbymtheg saptadasan heptakaideka septendecim ....
dauarbymtheg astadasan oktokaideka octodecim .... triarbymtheg unavinsati
.... undevinginti .... pedwararbym vinsati eikosi viginti dwideszimti ugain C
the g trinsat triakonta triginta .... deg ar hugain chatvarinsat tesserakonta
quadraginta .... deugain panchasat pentekonta quinquaginta .... deg a deugain
shashti hexakonta sexaginta .... * triugain saptati hebdomekonta septuaginta
.... deg a thriugain asiti ogdoekonta octoginta .... pedwarugain navati
enenekonta nonaginta |
|
|
|
|
|
§ THE
NUMERALS. 43 1 460. It is in the Ordinal numbers that the numeral more
particularly assumes the adjectival character. We retain all the Ordinals in
their Saxon form except two, namely, first and second. First rose into its
place from the dialects; but second was borrowed from the French — a solitary
instance among the Numerals, properly so called. The Saxon word in its place
was other, a word which has now a pronominal value only. It had this
pronominal value in ancient times, in the Old High German andar and in the
Mcesogothic anthar. This equivocal use it doubtless was which caused our
adoption in this single case of a French Ordinal. The Germans also have
discarded ember from the numerical function probably for the same reason; and
they have made a newOrdinal for that place after the prevalent type, fcer
^trette. 461. Adverbial numerals are such as once, twice, thrice, four times,
&c, where it is to be observed that the difference of adverbial form
between the first three numerals and their successors is of a piece with the
fact that these three were and others were not, or at last not in an equal
degree, declinable in Saxon. It is generally found in languages that the
earlier numerals are the more liable to flexion. The adverbs once, twice,
thrice, are in fact genitival forms under a frenchified orthography. In the
Ormulum they are spelt thus, aness, twiyss, thriyss. But even when divested
of their French garb, they do not prove to be old Saxon forms. In Saxon times
the genitive was not used for this purpose: there was indeed an adverbial
anes (genitive of an, one) but it meant ' at one/ ' of one accord.' For once,
twice, thrice, the Saxon was cene, tuwa, thriwa. But although our forms are
not ancient, their distinctness from the rest of their series is founded upon
an ancient distinction. For in the correponding Saxon series there was a like
transition: the next terms were feower sitSon, fif si(5on, &c. |
|
|
|
|
|
432
VII. THE NOUN GROUP. The numerals have been inserted in this place as a sort of
appendix to the nounal group, because of their manifest affinity to that
group. At the same time, enough has been said to indicate that they have a
several character of their own, and that it would be unphilological to let
them be absorbed into any class of words whatever. That this is the proper
place for the numerals we conclude not only from their assimilation to the
nounal group on the one hand, but also from certain traces of affinity which
they bear to the pronouns on the other. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
434 VIII. THE PRONOUN GROUP when
used playfully as a substitute for /, is a pronoun; as much so as your
Honour, your Lordship, your Grace, your Highness, your Majesty. That all
these have passed, or at least are passing, into the region of the symbolic,
there can be little doubt. And these recent instances of the transference
enable us to conceive how all pronouns may possibly have been generated from
nouns. 463. The wide difference between nouns and pronouns is equally
certain, whatever may become of any etymological theory, inasmuch as it is a
difference which depends not upon origin, but upon function. It is not our
earliest impression when we first consider a butterfly, that it is a
transformed caterpiller; and when we have discovered their identity of
origin, we have in no wise removed their difference of function. Although we
know that the caterpiller and the butterfly are the same individual, this does
not a whit alter the fact that they are two widely different things, and in
very different conditions of existence. Should it ever become capable of
proof that all the pronouns had sprung from presentive roots, this would not
invalidate the statement, that in passing from nouns to pronouns we traverse
a wide gulf, and one which can hardly be overrated as the great central
valley dividing the two main formations of which language is composed (227).
These two great hemispheres of language, which we designate as the Presentive
and the Symbolic, which Bopp calls the Verbal and the Pronominal, may with
equal propriety and greater brevity be simply called Nouns and Pronouns, for
in fact every other part of speech branches out of these two. Of all the
parts of speech hitherto noticed, it is the general quality (putting aside a
few marked exceptions, such as the symbol verb to be and the auxiliaries)
that they are presentive. Of all the parts of speech which remain to be |
|
|
|
|
|
SYMBOLIC BUT SUB-PRESENTIVE. 435
noticed it is the general quality that they are (not presentive but) symbolic.
464. And yet we are not come to a dead level of symbolism. There are
gradations of this character. The first pronouns that we shall consider, are
a class which combine with their symbolism a certain qualified sort of
presentive power. How completely the personal pronouns are entitled to the
character of symbolic, we have already shewn (246). But here we have to add,
that besides the symbolic character, the pronoun / (for instance) has also a
sort of reflected or borrowed presentiveness; — what may be called a
subpresentive power. Though this pronoun has absolutely no signification by
itself, yet when once the substantive has been given like a keynote, then
from that time the pronoun continues to have, by a kind of delegacy, the
presentive power which has been deputed to it by that substantive. We may see
the same thing, if we consider the third personal pronoun him. It has been my
rare good fortune to have seen a large proportion of the greatest minds of
our age, in the fields of poetry and speculative philosophy, such as
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Schiller, Tieck; but none that I have ever known come
near him. — H. C. Robinson, Diary, 1831. If we read this sentence, and ask '
Who is him? ' we acknowledge the two qualities which constitute the substantive-pronoun:
for we imply (1) that the word does indicate somebody, and (2) that it does
not say who the person indicated is. he. He was a delightful man to walk
with, and especially in a mountainous country. He was physically strong, had
excellent spirits, and was joyous and boyish in his intercourse with his
children and pupils. — H. C. Robinson, Diary, 1842. This sub-presentive
character belongs to the personal pronouns, as if by some right of contiguity
to the great f f 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
43 6 VIII. THE PRONOUN GROUP.
presentive body of words which we leave behind us. As we proceed with the
catalogue of the pronouns, it will become less and less perceptible, until at
length, when the pronoun passes into the conjunction, it entirely fades from
the view, and leaves only the pure symbolic essence of speech, whose meaning
is so slight as to be imponderable, and whose value for the highest purposes
of language is so great as to be almost inestimable. The pronouns are, as
their name signifies, words which are the vicegerents of nouns. Accordingly,
they vary in habit and function just in the same manner as nouns vary, and
fall naturally into a similar division. This division is therefore into the
same three groups as before, viz. I. Substantival, II. Adjectival, III.
Adverbial. I. Substantival Pronouns. 465. These are the pronouns of which, if
the reader asked himself what presentive word they symbolise, he must make
answer by a substantive. Among these the first in every sense are The
Personal Pronouns. How ancient these are will best be seen by a comparative
table. Most of them will be found to be radically the same in all the
languages of the Gothic stock. The statement would apply much more widely;
but we must be on our guard against wandering when we are entering such a '
forest primeval ' as that of the pronominal group. Hear Professor Max Miiller
on the antiquity of aham, which is the Sanskrit form of /. It belongs to the
earliest formations of Aryan speech, and we need not wonder that even in
Sanskrit the materials out of which this pronoun was framed should have
disappeared. |
|
|
|
|
|
And again, The Sanskrit aham, a
word carried down by the stream of language from such distant ages, that even
the Vedas, as compared with them, are but as it were of yesterday. —
Lectures, Second Series, p. 348. |
|
|
|
|
|
Nom. ik ek ic I Gen. meina min
min |
|
|
|
|
|
1. SUBSTANTIVAL. — PERSONAL. 439
The form thee is both Dative and Accusative, and in both aspects it is
frequent in the Bible of 161 1. In the following quotation it appears three
times in the Dative case: The field giue I thee, and the caue that is
therein, I giue it thee, in the presence of the sonnes of my people giue I it
thee. — Genesis xxiii. 11. The observations which have been made upon the
previous group apply again. The paucity of the modem forms is even more
remarkable here, because three out of the four, namely thou, thee, ye, are
restricted in use, and you alone remains in the ordinary practice of the
language. Here again, as in the case of the first pronoun, the blanks of the
English column are supplied by a method of expression which we have learned
from the French. 468. The Pronoun of the Third Person. The pronoun of the
third person is of three genders, and this distinguishes it not only from all
other pronouns, but from all the rest of the language. For this, and the few
relics of feminine substantives noticed in 383, 384, are all the Gender that
remains in the English language. These remnants of the ancient accidence are
so pared down, that they rather indicate the two sexes and non-personality
than that traditional and inherited mysterious thing which is called
grammatical Gender. Almost the only instances of masculine and feminine that
the grammarians can muster (beyond sex) are these, 'The sun he is getting/
and 'The ship she sails well.' This pronoun was in Saxon declined as follows:
— Masc. Fem. Nel't. |
|
|
|
|
|
440 VI 11 - THE PRONOUN GROUP.
Plural (of all genders). N. and A. hie (hi, hig, heo) Gen. hiera (heora,
hira) Dat. him (heom) If we go through this old declension word by word,
seeking in each case the modern equivalent, we find that only three of its
members are still perfectly living. They are those which are marked with an
asterisk. I call a given word living, not when the mere form is extant, but
when that forms retains its old animating function. In such a comparison we
need not notice the changes of shape, when a word is known to be the same.
Thus the difference of spelling between hire and her is insignificant. But
the difference of function must be rigorously weighed, or we shall let the
most important distinctions slip unvalued through our fingers. For this
reason I have excluded the genitive case singular, both feminine and neuter,
as being now dead to us. The neuter his no longer exists except in old
literature. It has entirely disappeared, and does not even remain in the
discharge of any partial or local function. Instances of its use are abundant
in Shakspeare (412) and our Bible: — They came vnto the yron gate that
leadeth vnto the citie, which opened to them of his owne accord. — Acts xii.
10. Equally extinct is him, the dative neuter. I have marked those words with
a dagger in the declension, which have a partial continuity with the present
English. The his of the genitive masculine is superseded by of him except in
emphatic positions. The his and her with which we are most familiar are no
longer genitive cases of a substantival pronoun; they have long ago become
adjectival words, and they are called Possessives. As to the two dative
forms, which are marked as partially surviving in our modern speech, |
|
|
|
|
|
1. SUBSTANTIVAL. — REFLEXIVE.
441 their thread of identical vitality is very attenuated. Not once in a
thousand times when him or her appear as substantivepronouns, are they to be
identified with this dative. We have it in such a rare instance as this: — So
they sadled him the asse. — 1 Kings xiii. 13. And this is not modern English:
we should now say ' they saddled for him.' The sort of instance in which the
dative him or her is still in familiar use, is such as this: ' I gave him or
her sixpence.' Here, as in other cases, the influence of the little words of
and to have come in, through imitation of the French, to give quite a new
character to our declension of the pronoun. 469. The Reflexive Pr 01107m.
There was an old Reflexive Pronoun which in Mcesogothic was sik and sis; in
Icelandic is sik and ser; both radically identical with the Latin se, sui,
sibi. This pronoun remains in full activity in German in the form ftcfy; and
yet it is almost entirely lost on the Low Dutch side of the Teutonic family.
There is no relic of it in Anglo-Saxon 1 , nor has it ever cropped up at any
later stage of our language, as it has, rather remarkably, in the modern
Dutch zich. We now supply the place of it by self selves; as, myself thyself,
himself, herself itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves. This has the
advantage of being equally applicable to all varieties of person, whereas
ftcfy is of the third person only. 3efu$ faf) 9?atf)cutaet ju fief) fonrmen.
— Luther s Version. Jesus saw Nathaneel comming to him. — John i. 47. |
|
|
|
|
|
442 VIII. THE PRONOUN GROUP.
Here we have to call attention to the fact that the Objective Case of the
pronoun performed for a long period the double office of direct and reflex
pronoun for all the three Persons. We have now lost this faculty: and we can
no longer say, 'Ye clothe you/ as in Haggai i. 6, but ' you clothe
yourselves.' And Elisha said vnto him, Take bowe and arrowes. And he tooke
vnto him bowe and arrowes. — 2 Kings xiii. 15. If we compare the Dutch
version we shall find a distinction where our version has unto him in
different senses: — Ende Elisa seyde tot hem: Neemt eenen boge ende pijlen:
ende hy nam tot sich eenen boge ende pijlen. In the following verses we have
them reflexively: — And the children of Israel did secretly those things that
were not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high places in
all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. And they
set them vp images and groues in euery high hill, and vnder euery greene
tree. — 2 Kings xvii. 9, 10. Later in the same chapter we find themselves: —
So they feared the Lord, and made vnto themselues of the lowest of them
priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the
high places. — ver. 32. Thus, in the sermon preached at the funeral of Bishop
Andrewes, we read — The unjust judge righted the importunate widow but out of
compassion to relieve him. — Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology, Andrewes, v.
274. The last word corresponds, not to the Latin eum, but to se, and the
modern rendering of the passage would be ' The unjust judge righted the
importunate widow only out of compassion to (relieve) himself.' The -self
form has gradually gained upon the reflex usage of him, her, them, and the
next quotation exhibits a practical reason why it should have done so, for we
see it was found necessary to distinguish by a variation of type the reflex |
|
|
|
|
|
1. SUBSTANTIVAL. — REFLEXIVE.
443 pronoun from the direct personal pronouns of the same form: Men look with
an evil Eye upon the Good that is in others, and think that their Reputation
obscures them, and that their commendable Qualities do stand in their Light;
and therefore they do what they can to cast a Cloud over them, that the
bright shining of their Virtues may not scorch them. — John Tillotscn,
Against Evil-speaking (ed. 1728). This manner of expressing the reflex
pronoun is now only poetical: — Mark ye, how close she veils her round.
Christian Year, Fourth Sunday in Lent. 470. We will close the subject of the
personal pronouns with a brief conspectus of these pronouns as they appear
before verbs in some of the most important sister-languages:— Singular.
Plural. 1st. 2nd. 3rd. 1st. 2nd. 3rd. M. F. N. ■ M. F. N. MG.
ik thu is si ita weis jus eis ijos ija Icel. ek thu hann hon that wer ther
their thaer thau Dan. jeg du han hun det vi I de AS. ic thu he heo hit we ge
hi Engl. I thou he she it we (ye) you they Germ. Ich du er sie es wir ihr sie
Dutch ik . . hy zij het wij gy zy The pronoun of the second person singular
is lost in Dutch; — it is reserved for intimacy and devotion in German; — in
English it is used only towards God. The Germans share this dignified use of
the pronoun with us, as a result of religious conditions which have affected
both languages alike. The two great Bible-translating nations have naturally,
in their veneration for the words of Scripture, made this Hebrew idiom their
own. It is only to be wondered at how the Dutch should have done otherwise. |
|
|
|
|
|
444 VIII > THE PRONOUN GROUP.
The natural tendency of the western civilization, apart from other
influences, would be to shrink from such a use of thpu. The French have been
led by this feeling, and in all addresses to God they use vous. It is not,
therefore, from any radical difference, but only from the effect of
circumstances, that the western languages are divided in this particular. A
sensitiveness as to the social use of the second pronoun is common to all the
nations of the West, but it exhibits itself in unequal degrees. We are
influenced by it less than any of the other great languages. We have indeed
dropped thou, but we remain tolerably satisfied with you, except when we wish
to shew reverence. At such times we are sensible of a void in our speech,
unless the personage has a title, as your Lordship. Here it is that the
pronominal use of Monsieur and Madame in the French language is felt to be so
admirable a contrivance. The substitution of any third-person formula meets
the difficulty. In one way or another most of the great languages have done
this. The German has done it in the directest manner by simply putting fie
they, for fyx you. Not more direct, but much drier, is the (now I imagine
rather obsolete) Danish fashion of calling a man to his face han he, as a
polite substitute for the second person: — it is common in Holberg's plays.
In Italian an abstract feminine substantive takes the place of the pronoun of
the second person. But the most ceremonious of all in this matter is the
great language of chivalry. The philologer who goes no deeper into Spanish,
must at least acquaint himself with the formula which it substitutes for the
second person. To say vos you, is with them a great familiarity, or even an
insult. At least, in the short form of os it is so. Something like this
exists in Devonshire and Somersetshire, as regards the use of the second
person Singular. 'He thou'd me and he thee'd me' is in Somer |
|
|
|
|
|
1. SUBSTANTIVAL. — REFLEXIVE.
445 setshire said of the last degree of rudeness. And in Devonshire, the
phrase 'I tell thee what' betokens that altercation is growing dangerous.
Compare the yo os digo of the following vivacious interview. The archbishop
had remained, while the ambassador was speaking, dumb with anger and
amazement. At last, finding his voice, and starting from his seat in fury, he
exclaimed: 'Sirrah M I tell you that, but for certain respects, I would so
chastise you for these words that you have spoken, that I would make you an
example to all your kind. I would chastise you, I say; I would make you know
to whom you speak in such shameless fashion.' 'Sirrah!' replied Smith, in a
fury too, and proud of his command of the language which enabled him to
retort the insult, ' Sirrah! I tell you that I care neither for you nor your
threats.' ' Quitad os! Be off with you!' shouted Quiroga, foaming with rage;
' leave the room! away! I say.' ' If you call me Sirrah,' said Smith, ' I
will call you Sirrah.' — J. A. Froude, Reign of Elizabeth, V. 66. Returning
to our table, we call attention to an interesting question, namely, What are
the affinities of the English she} We must identify it with the Mcesogothic
si, the German sie, and the Dutch zij; only then it is so strange that there
should be no trace of it all through the Saxon period. The explanation is to
suppose that it was all the time in popular though not in literary use, and
that the disturbance of the Conquest afforded an opening for it; — while
perhaps the feminine Demonstrative seo (487) made it the easier to change heo
into sheo, and finally she. A very ancient Demonstrative Pronoun. 471. Here
we notice only the ancient Demonstrative so, leaving the modern that and this
until we come to the 1 'Yo os digo.' Sirrah is too mild a word; but we have
no full equivalent. 'Os' is used by a king to subjects, by a father to
children, more rarely by a master to a servant. It is a mark of infinite
distance between a superior and inferior. 'Dog' would perhaps come nearest to
the archbishop's meaning in the present connexion. — Mr. Froude 's note. |
|
|
|
|
|
44-6 VIII. THE PRONOUN GROUP.
adjectival section. The Saxon form was swa, with a rarer poetic form se; and
already in the earliest Saxon literature it had lost its independence. Then,
as now, it occurred only in composite expressions, as swa hwa swa, whoso; swa
HWiGT swa whatso (518). There are other composites in which its presence is
more concealed; namely as made up of all and so, in Saxon ealswa; and such
made up of so and which, in Saxon swilc. The Interrogative and Relative
Pronouns. 472. Who, what, with their inflections, of which we retain only
two, whose and whom, in their place 1 , are now used interrogatively and
indefinitely and relatively. But in Saxon they were only interrogative and
indefinite, not relative. The Relative function was so great an addition as
to give thepronoun a new character. This change of character took place in
the great French period, and was a direct consequence of French example. For
that language, in common with all the Romance languages, uses the same sets
of pronouns as interrogatives and as relatives. There are two main sources of
Relative Pronouns, namely the Demonstratives and the Interrogatives. In the
Gothic family the Relatives spring from the former group, in the Romanesque
family from the latter. The Saxon Relatives accordingly were from the
Demonstratives, and we still use that as a Relative. It exists as a variant
either for who or which, our French-trained Relatives. Thus we can say ' he
who, they who' or ' he that, they that': also ' the thing that' as well as
'the thing which.' 1 Why, where, when, whence, are indeed inflections of who,
what, and they are retained in the language; but they are moved to another
place, namely, the company of the adverbs. |
|
|
|
|
|
1. SUBSTANTIVAL. — RELATIVES.
447 Where we now say that which, the Saxon was that that, ]?aet )?a?t. We
have an interesting relic of this demonstrativerelative in our ablative the
with a comparative, as ' The willinger I goe/ Milton, Paradise Lost, viii.
382: an ablative which runs often in couples, as, ' the more the merrier':
The higher the storm, the happier he. F. Myers, Peter of Russia. Advice, like
snow, the softer it falls the longer it dwells upon and the deeper it sinks
into the mind. — S. T. Coleridge. The change to the Interrogative-Relative is
more than superficial; it amounts to a transposition of internal relations in
the fabric of our language. This and other organic changes into which we have
been led by French example, must certainly be unperceived by those who go on
affirming that the influence of French upon English has been only
superficial. 473. Whom is now used only personally. But there is no
historical reason for this, beyond modern usage. Time was when it was used of
things as much as what, and examples occur in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. The following is of the date 1484: — Item. I bequethe to the auter
of saint John the Baptist and saynt Nicholas the which is myne owen ch.ipell
in the parish chirche of Newlonde in the Forest of Dene in whome my body
shalbe buried In primis a crosse of silver, &c. — The Will of Dame Jane
Lady Barre, in Mr. Ellacombe's Memoir of Biiton, p. 47. Lest it should be
supposed that such a use can only be produced from obscure writings, I may
mention the Faery Queene, in a passage which is quoted above, 158, where whom
refers to a ship. Whose has long been used of persons only, but there is now
a disposition, notably among our historians, to restore its pristine right of
referring to things also: — The church of Canterbury, as designed and carried
out by him, was not one of those vast piles whose building was necessarily
spread over several |
|
|
|
|
|
44§ VIII. THE PRONOUN GROUP.
generations. His whole work was done in the space of seven years, a space whose
shortness amazed his own generation. — Edward A. Freeman, Norman Conquest,
vol. iv. p. 361. Hincmar, in his reply, which is worded with the utmost
respect, reminds the Pope of the forms of procedure with regard to appeals to
Rome, as prescribed by the Council of Sardica, upon whose decrees the
practice mainly rested. — W. Henley Jervis, The Gallican Church, vol. i. p.
33. There is a what equivalent to 'that which/ embodying both antecedent and
relative, specially called into action in the opening of sentences where the
French would use ' Ce que/ This condensed what, at first probably learnt from
a Latin quod, has been extended by the English speech-genius: What in me is
dark Illumin, what is low raise and support. John Milton, Paradise Lost, i.
22. What we call a simple fact is in great part the product of our judgment,
and therefore often of our fancy, working upon very fragmentary data. What we
do in observing a fact is to nil in an outline of which only a point here and
there has been actually assigned, an outline therefore which may be no more
obligatory than the shapes of the constellations on a celestial globe. — J.
Venn, Htdsea?i Lectures for 1 869, p. 13. 474. Before quitting this set, it
may be interesting to observe that what in Anglo-Saxon had a peculiar
function as a leading interjection, a usage still familiar to those who know
the dialect of the Lake district. The minstrel often began his lay with
hw^et! The noblest of Anglo-Saxon poems, the Beowulf, begins with this
exclamation: Hwaet we Gar Dena on gear dagum peod cyninga prim ge frunon Hu
ra aeSelingas ellen fremedon. What ho I the oft-told tales of ancient trysts,
The martial mustering s of mighty Gar-Dane kings, And famous feats of arms
performed by cethelings. Interrogation, appeal, expostulation, admiration,
lie very near to one another in the structure of the human mind, and hence we
see in many languages an approach to this habit. |
|
|
|
|
(delwedd E6456) (tudalen 449) |
1. SUBSTANTIVAL. — INDEFINITES.
449 In Latin there is the rhetorical use of quid! in French of quoi! and if
we would see a situation in which several of those meanings blend
inseparably, we may refer to Proverbs xxxi. 2, where the version of 161 1 is
rigidly literal, while that °f 1535 is homely and unconstrained according to
wont. Miles Cover dale. 161 1. My sonne, thou sonne of my body: What, my
sonne! and what, the O my deare beloued sonne. sonne of my wombe! and what,
the sonne of my vowes! The Indefinite Pronouns. 475. For the sake of
continuity let who and what come first. These had of old the function of
Indefinites (472), as well as of Interrogatives: but since they have become
Relatives their Indefinite character has not grown, but remains merely as a
survival in the old compounds whoso, wkntso, somewhat. Another pronoun which
is still more a thing of the past, is:hat Indefinite Personal pronoun which
was made out of a symbolised man, like the indefinite pronoun in German (33);
and like the French on, a. form of homme, in which the spelling has varied
with the sublimation of the meaning. This indefinite man, or, as it was
oftener written, mon, we lost at an early date, in the great shaking that
followed the Conquest; but it is so natural a word for a pronoun to grow out
of, that we do, from time to time, fall as if unconsciously into this use. In
the following quotation from Mark viii. 4, a man is a manifest pronoun; the
Greek is dwrja-erai ns. To show the pedigree of the expression in this place,
three versions are put side by side: — Wiclif, 1389. Tyndale, 1 5 26. The
Bible of I 6 1 1 . Wherof a man schal From whence myght From whence can a
mowe fllle hem with a man suffyse them with man satisfie these men looues
here in wildir- breed here in the wyl- with bread here in the dernes?
wildernes? |
........
Sumbolau:
a A / æ Æ / e E / ɛ Ɛ / i I / o O / u U / w W / y Y /
MACRON: ā Ā / ǣ Ǣ / ē Ē / ɛ̄ Ɛ̄ / ī Ī /
ō Ō / ū Ū / w̄ W̄ / ȳ Ȳ /
MACRON + ACEN DDYRCHAFEDIG: Ā̀ ā̀ , Ḗ ḗ,
Ī́ ī́ , Ṓ ṓ , Ū́ ū́, (w), Ȳ́ ȳ́
MACRON + ACEN DDISGYNEDIG: Ǟ ǟ , Ḕ ḕ,
Ī̀ ī̀, Ṑ ṑ, Ū̀ ū̀, (w), Ȳ̀ ȳ̀
MACRON ISOD: A̱ a̱ , E̱ e̱ , I̱ i̱ , O̱ o̱, U̱ u̱, (w), Y̱ y̱
BREF: ă Ă / ĕ Ĕ / ĭ Ĭ
/ ŏ Ŏ / ŭ Ŭ / B5236: 
B5237: 
BREF GWRTHDRO ISOD: i̯, u̯
CROMFACHAU: ⟨ ⟩ deiamwnt
A’I PHEN I LAWR: ∀, ә, ɐ (u+0250) https:
//text-symbols.com/upside-down/
ˡ ɑ ɑˑ aˑ a: / æ æ: /
e eˑe: / ɛ ɛ: / ɪ iˑ i: / ɔ oˑ o: / ʊ uˑ u: / ə / ʌ /
ẅ Ẅ / ẃ Ẃ / ẁ Ẁ
/ ŵ Ŵ /
ŷ Ŷ / ỳ Ỳ / ý Ý / ɥ
ˡ ð ɬ ŋ ʃ ʧ θ ʒ ʤ / aɪ ɔɪ əɪ uɪ ɪʊ aʊ ɛʊ əʊ / £
ә ʌ ẃ
ă ĕ ĭ ŏ ŭ ẅ ẃ ẁ Ẁ ŵ
ŷ ỳ Ỳ Hungarumlaut: A̋ a̋
U+1EA0 Ạ U+1EA1 ạ
U+1EB8 Ẹ U+1EB9 ẹ
U+1ECA Ị U+1ECB ị
U+1ECC Ọ U+1ECD ọ
U+1EE4 Ụ U+1EE5 ụ
U+1E88 Ẉ U+1E89 ẉ
U+1EF4 Ỵ U+1EF5 ỵ
g
yn 
aith δ δ £ gyn aith δ δ £ U+2020
† DAGGER
wikipedia, scriptsource. org
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ǣ
---------------------------------------
Y TUDALEN
HWN: www.kimkat.org/amryw/1_testunau/testun-246_philology-english-tongue_earle_1879_rhan-3_2124k.htm
Creuwyd:
15-11-2018
Ffynhonell: archive.org
Adolygiad diweddaraf: 15-11-2018
Delweddau:
|
Freefind: |
Ble'r wyf i? Yr ych chi'n ymwéld ag un o dudalennau'r Wefan CYMRU-CATALONIA
On sóc? Esteu visitant
una pàgina del Web CYMRU-CATALONIA (= Gal·les-Catalunya)
Where am I? You
are visiting a page from the CYMRU-CATALONIA (= Wales-Catalonia) Website
Weə-r äm ai? Yüu äa-r víziting ə peij fröm dhə CYMRU-CATALONIA (= Weilz-Katəlóuniə) Wébsait